*  NOV  2  1904   * 


BV  2063  .S44  1875 

Seelye,  Julius  H.  1824-1895 

Christian  missions 


CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 


Christian    Missions, 


BY 


REV.   JULIUS    H.    SEELYE, 

PROFESSOR  IN  AMHBRST  COLLEGE. 


NEW  YORK : 

DODD,  MEAD  &   COMPANY 
Publishers 


Copyright. 

DoDD  AND  Mead. 

1875. 


CONTENTS. 


FIRST  LECTURE. 
The  Condition   and  Wants   of   the   Unchristian 
World 7 

SECOND  LECTURE. 
Failure  of  the  Ordinary  Appliances  of  Civiliza- 
tion to  improve  the  World  .       ,  .31 

THIRD  LECTURE. 
The  Adequacy  of  the  Gospel 59 

FOURTH  LECTURE. 
The  Millennarian  Theory  of  Missions     .       ,       .94 

FIFTH   LECTURE. 
The  True  Method  of  Missionary  Operations  .        .128 

SIXTH   LECTURE. 
Motives  for  a  Higher  Consecration  to  the  Mis- 
sionary Work 155 

SERMON. 
The  Resurrection  of  Christ  the  Justification  of 
Missions 173 


FIRST   LECTURE. 

THE    CONDITION   AND   WANTS    OF    THE    UNCHRIS- 
TIAN  WORLD. 

When  I  was  a  student  in  college,  a  venerated 
missionary  of  the  American  Board,*  distin- 
guished alike  for  his  wisdom  and  piety  and 
successful  service,  visiting  Amherst,  and  relating 
some  results  of  his  thirty  years'  observations  on 
missionary  ground,  told  us,  among  other  things, 
that  we,  having  always  lived  in  a  Christian  land, 
could  have  little  conception  of  the  vices  and  the 
degradation  of  the  heathen.  Though  I  hardly 
understood  the  remark  at  the  time,  and  never 
felt  its  force  until  my  own  recent  observation 
gave  me  some  opportunity  of  testing  its  truth, 
it  no  longer  excites  my  wonder ;  and  I  should 

*  Rev.  Dr.  Poor. 


8  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

now  be  surprised  to  hear  it  contradicted  by  any 
one  familiar  with  the  actual  condition  of  the  un- 
christian world.  My  observations  have  given 
me  a  deeper  sense  than  I  ever  had  before  of  the 
darkness  which  rests  upon  the  world  without  the 
knowledge  of  Christ,  and  a  deeper  conviction, 
also,  that  this  darkness  has  no  power  of  its  own 
to  turn  itself  into  the  day.  I  am  sure  you  will 
experience  the  same  sentiments,  and  be  prepared 
for  the  further  considerations  to  be  presented  in 
these  lectures,  if  I  can  set  before  you  at  the 
outset  a  clear  and  correct  picture  of  the  deg- 
radation of  life,  and  corruption  of  society,  wbi^jh 
i-eign  where  the  sway  of  the  gospel  is  unknown. 
My  own  observations,  however,  on  this  point, 
have  been  far  too  limited  to  warrant  even  a 
sketch  derived  from  these ;  and,  instead  of  at- 
tempting this,  I  shall  rather  use  the  drawings 
and  the  colors  of  clear  eyes  and  sound  hearts, 
whose  opportunities  of  learning  the  truth,  and 
whose  disposition  to  present  the  truth,  no  one 
will  question. 


THE   UNCHRISTIAN   WORLD. 


Respecting  the  Chinese,  says  an  observer  of 
singular  accuracy,  "With  a  general  regard  for 
outward  decency,  they  are  vile  and  polluted  in  a 
shocking  degree:  their  conversation  is  full  of 
filthy  expressions,  and  their  lives  of  impure 
acts.  .  .  .  Brothels  and  their  inmates  occur 
everywhere,  on  land  and  on  water.  .  .  .  They 
feel  no  shame  at  being  detected  in  a  lie,  though 
they  have  not  gone  quite  so  far  as  not  to  know 
when  they  do  lie  ;  nor  do  they  fear  any  punish- 
ment from  their  gods  for  it.  .  .  .  There  is  nothing 
which  tries  one  so  much,  when  living  among 
them,  as  their  disregard  of  truth.  .  .  .  Their 
proneness  to  this  fault  is  one  of  the  greatest 
obstacles  to  their  permanent  improvement  as  a 
people,  while  it  constantly  disheartens  those 
who  are  making  efforts  to  teach  them."  * 

In  the  theory  of  Chinese  ethics,  taught  con- 
tinually in  their  schools,  sincerity  is  described 
as  the  way  of  heaven,  and  the  first  of  excel- 
lences.     "  Never,"    say    the    Chinese    classics, 

*  Dr.  S.  Wells  Williams,  Middle  Kingdom,  vol.  ii.  p.  96. 


10  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

"  has  there  been  one  possessed  of  complete  sin- 
cerity who  did  not  move  others.  Never  has 
there  been  one  who  had  not  sincerity  who  was 
able  to  move  others."  *  "  But,"  says  Prof.  Kidd, 
"  if  this  virtue  had  been  chosen  as  a  national 
characteristic,  not  only  to  be  set  at  defiance  in 
practice,  but  to  form  the  most  striking  contrast 
to  existing  manners,  a  more  appropriate  one 
than  sincerity  could  not  have  been  found.  So 
opposed  is  the  public  and  private  character  of 
the  Chinese  to  genuine  sincerity,  that  an  enemy 
might  have  selected  it  as  ironically  descriptive 
of  their  conduct  in  contrast  with  their  preten- 
sions. Falsehood,  duplicity,  insincerity,  and 
obsequious  accommodation  to  favorable  circum- 
stances, are  national  features  remarkably  promi- 
nent." f  The  same  writer  declares,  that  if  we 
judge  of  the  morality  of  families  from  the  ad- 
vices of  moral  writers,  and  from  the  records  of 
domestic  manners  which  the  Chinese  themselves 
furnish,  the  appalling  conclusion  is  reached,  that 

*  Mencius,  iv.  i,  12.    t  China,  p.  205. 


THE  UNCHRISTIAN   WORLD.  II 

almost  every  vice  noticed  in  the   Scripture  is 
practised  in  detail. 

"  Chinese  society,"  says  the  Abb6  Hue, 
"has  a  certain  tone  of  decency  and  reserve, 
that  may  very  well  impose  on  those  who  look 
only  at  the  surface,  and  judge  merely  by  the 
momentary  impression;  but  a  very  short  resi- 
dence among  the  Chinese  is  sufficient  to  show 
that  their  virtue  is  entirely  external ;  their 
public  morality  is  but  a  mask  worn  over  the 
corruption  of  their  manners.  We  will  take 
care  not  to  lift  the  unclean  veil  that  hides  the 
putrefaction  of  this  ancient  Chinese  civilization. 
The  leprosy  of  vice  has  spread  so  completely 
through  this  sceptical  society,  that  the  varnish 
of  modesty  with  which  it  is  covered  is  contin- 
ually falling  off,  and  exposing  the  hideous 
wounds  which  are  eating  away  the  vitals  of  this 
unbelieving  people.  Their  language  is  already 
revoltingly  indecent ;  and  the  slang  of  the  worst 
resorts  of  licentiousiAess  threatens  to  become  the 
ordinary  language  of  conversation.     There  are 


12  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

some  provinces  in  which  the  inns  on  the  road 
have  apartments  entirely  papered  with  represen- 
tations of  all  kinds  of  shameless  debauchery; 
and  these  abominable  pictures  are  known  among 
the  Chinese  by  the  pretty  name  of  flowers."  * 

"  Lying  among  the  Burmans,"  says  Malcom, 
"  though  strictly  forbidden  in  the  sacred  books, 
prevails  among  all  classes.  They  may  be  said 
to  be  a  nation  of  liars.  They  never  place  confi- 
dence in  the  word  of  each  other ;  and  all  dealing 
is  done  with  chicanery  and  much  disputing. 
Even  when  detected  in  a  lie,  no  shame  is  mani- 
fested ;  and  unless  put  on  oath,  which  a  Bur- 
man  greatly  dreads,  no  reliance  whatever  can  be 
placed  on  the  word  of  any  man."  f 

Bishop  Heber,  whose  opportunities  of  judging 
of  the  Hindoos  were  ample,  declares  of  them, 
"  I  have  never  met  with  a  race  of  men  whose 
standard  of  morality  is  so  low,  who  feel  so  little 
apparent  shame  in  being  detected  in  a  falsehood, 

*  Travels  in  the  Chinese  Empire,  vol.  ii.  p.  326. 
t  Travels  in  South-eastern  Asia,  vol.  i.  p.  191. 


THE   UNCHRISTIAN   WORLD.  1 3 

or  SO  little  interest  in  the  sufferings  of  a  neigh- 
bor not  being  of  their  own  caste,  or  family, 
whose  ordinary  and  familiar  conversation  is  so 
licentious,  or,  in  the  wilder  and  more  lawless 
districts,  who  shed  blood  with  so  little  repug- 
nance."* Infanticide  prevails  in  India,  as  it  does 
in  China,  to  an  awful  extent.  One  of  the 
earliest  English  missionaries  sent  there,  Rev. 
William  Ward,  gives  the  testimony  of  a  Hindoo 
pundit,  that  the  number  of  children  put  to 
death  by  their  mothers  in  the  province  of 
Bengal  alone,  could  not  be  less  than  ten  thou- 
sand every  month.f  Though,  since  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  English  rule  in  India,  this  fright- 
ful crime  has  lessened  in  extent,  it  is  yet  far 
from  having  disappeared,  f 

La  Perouse,  the  French  navigator,  quite  fa- 
miliar with,  and,  if  report  says  truly,  largely  tinc- 
tured by,  Rousseau's  picture  of  the  innocence 
of    savage   life,  thus   speaks   of   the  Sandwich- 

*  Ward's  India,  p.  2S6.      t  Ward's  Hindoos,  vol.  i.  p.  292. 
t  Butler's  Land  of  the  Vedas,  p.  470. 


14  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

Islanders  before  Christian  missions  reached 
them:  "The  most  daring  rascals  of  Europe 
are  less  hypocritical  than  these  natives.  All 
their  caresses  were  false.  Their  physiognomy 
does  not  express  a  single  sentiment  of  truth. 
The  one  most  to  be  suspected  is  he  who  has 
just  received  a  present,  or  who  appears  to  be 
the  most  earnest  in  rendering  a  thousand  little 
services."  *  In  respect  of  the  same  people,  Mr. 
J.  J.  Jarves  expresses  his  convictions,  derived 
from  a  nearly  four-years'  residence  at  these 
islands,  with  a  diligent  study  of  their  history, 
in  these  terms  :  "  The  Hawaiian  character, 
before  it  had  received  any  influence  from  Chris- 
tianity and  civilization,  may  be  thus  summed 
up  :  from  childhood,  no  natural  affections  were 
inculcated.  Spared  by  a  parent's  hand,  a  boy 
lived  only  to  become  the  victim  of  a  priest,  an 
offering  to  a  blood-loving  deity,  or  to  experience 
a  living  death  from  preternatural  fears.  ...  No 
moral  teachings  enkindled  a  love  of  truth.  .  .  . 
*  Voyages,  vol.  i.  p.  377. 


THE   UNCHRISTIAN   WORLD.  1 5 

Theft,  lying,  drunkenness,  riots,  revelling, 
treachery,  revenge,  incest,  lewdness,  infanticide, 
murder,  —  these  were  hi-s  earliest  and  latest 
teachings."  * 

There  are  certain  phases  of  life  often  seen 
among  Pagan  people,  by  which  a  casual  observer 
is  led  to  a  very  superficial  and  quite  erroneous 
opinion  respecting  them.  This  same  writer,  in 
speaking  further  of  the  Sandwich-Islanders, 
declares  that  "  they  possessed  a  power  of  endur- 
ance of  pain  which  was  wonderful  to  the  more 
delicately  reared  white  man.  A  like  insensi- 
bility pervaded  their  moral  system.  The  native, 
accustomed  to  scenes  of  blood,  seeing  his 
neighbors  and  friends  fall  about  him,  took  no 
warning,  but  enjoyed  his  animal  pleasures  with 
a  heartiness  which  vigorous  health  alone  could 
give,  and  a  thoughtlessness  of  the  morrow,  and 
carelessness  of  results,  which  deceived  many 
into  the  opinion  that  they  were  a  happy,  cheer* 
ful,  and  simple  race."  f 

*  Hist.  Sandwich  Islands,  p.  94.        t  Ibid.,  p.  97. 


l6  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

"  Murder  is  unknown  among  the  Tajeks," 
says  De  Bode,  "not  because  of  its  heinous 
nature,  but  because  they  have  not  courage 
enough  to  commit  it."  *  "  It  is  not  to  be  in- 
ferred," says  Wilson  in  his  "Western  Africa," 
"  that  the  gentleness  and  external  polish  mani- 
fested by  the  Mpongwe  people  is  based  upon 
any  real  moral  worth.  A  great  deal  of  the 
smoothness  and  polish  which  they  evince  in 
their  intercourse  with  white  men  is  entirely 
fictitious.  They  are  sadly  addicted  to  falsehood, 
insincerity,  deception,  and  dissimulation.  In  all 
these  respects,  they  have  no  rivals."  f 

But  this  condition  is  not  new.  That  the  most 
abominable  vices,  that  a  corruption  of  society 
and  life  exceeding  in  its  actual  facts  the  wild- 
est range  of  fancy,  have  always  prevailed  in 
the  unchristian  world,  every  student  of  history 
knows.  This  is  not  simply  true  among  bar- 
barians, or  wild  and  savage  tribes,  but  appears  as 
distinctly  among  the  most  renowned  trophies  of 

*  Bokhara,  p.  71.  t  Ibid.,  p.  297. 


THE   UNCHRISTIAN    WORLD. 


civilization  and  culture.  Ancient  Greece,  in  its 
palmiest  days,  is  no  more  conspicuous  for  the 
wealth  of  its  culture  than  for  the  wonders  of  its 
corruption.  Society  there  was  not  simply  pure 
on  the  surface,  and  polluted  beneath ;  but  it  was 
all  pollution,  —  on  the  face  of  it,  and  through  all 
its  depths.  If  this  be  thought  too  strong  a 
statement,  it  can  be  abundantly  and  quite  easily 
justified.  The  Greek  language  discloses  it.  What 
a  host  of  unclean  images  are  uncovered  as  one 
studies  the  words  of  this  most  cultivated  tongue  ! 
The  Greek  classic  authors  disclose  it.  How  full 
their  revelation  of  the  vices  of  their  time,  and 
how  clear  the  evidence  which  they  furnish,  that 
these  vices  belonged  not  simply  to  the  ignorant 
and  the  outcast,  but  also  to  the  most  polished 
circles  of  their  most  polished  life.  "  All  men," 
says  Aristotle,  "  desire  justice  to  be  done  them- 
selves ;  but  in  their  relation  to  others  the  ques- 
tion of  justice  is  unheeded."  *  Parmenides  is  the 
most   brilliant   name  in   the  Eleatic   school   of 


PoliL,  vii.  2, 8. 


1 8  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

philosophy;  and  for  his  character  and  life  the 
Greeks  had  such  an  admiration,  that  a  life  like 
Parmenides  became  a  proverb  among  them.  But 
he  is  specially  mentioned  as  addicted  to  a  vice 
too  revolting  to  be  named,  which  every  student 
knows  to  have  been  dominant  among  the  Greeks 
and  Romans,  as  it  has  been  among  the  Celts  and 
Tartars,  and  is  still  among  the  most  prominent 
Pagan  and  Mohammedan  people,  but  the  exist- 
ence of  which,  one  in  a  Christian  land  finds  it 
well-nigh  impossible  to  believe. 

At  Lesbos,  —  the  home  of  music  and  poetry, 
the  birthplace  of  Alcaeus  and  Sappho  and  Arion 
and  Terpander,  —  whose  musicians,  as  a  class, 
were  famous  above  all  the  Greeks,  and  whose 
refinement  and  intellectual  culture  are  famous 
still,  this  vice  was  so  prevalent,  that  the  island 
itself  gave  it  its  name.  Not  only  Parmenides, 
but  Eudoxus,  Xenocrates,  Aristotle,  Polemo, 
Grantor,  and  Arcesilaus  are  specially  mentioned 
among  the  philosophers  as  given  to  this  same 
vice ;  and  even  the  names  of  the  youths  of  whom 


THE    UNCHRISTIAN    WORLD.  ig 

they  were  enamoured  are  recorded.*  The  phi- 
losophers were  as  a  class  noted  for  this  vice,  and 
this  to  such  a  degree,  that  Plutarch,!  in  his 
treatise  on  the  education  of  boys,  declares  that 
parents  wishing  their  children  to  be  pure  would 
not  tolerate  their  having  any  acquaintance  with 
philosophers.  Zeno,  the  Stoic,  not  only  prac- 
tised this  impurity,  but  openly  acknowledged 
and  defended  it.  We  have  the  statement  of 
Sextus  Empiricus,  that  the  Cynics  and  heads 
of  the  Stoic  school  regarded  this  practice  as 
indifferent  to  morality,  if  but  that  its  real  and 
revolting  nature  was  quite  apparent,  is  clear 
from  the  excuses  and  palliations  often  urged  in 
its  behalf,  and  as  often  ridiculed  by  the 
ancients  themselves.  We  have  the  testimony 
of  Lucian  §  and  of  Cicero,  ||  who  also  quotes 
Ennius  and  Epicurus,  to  the  effect  of  the 
gross   and   carnal   nature  of    this  vice.     Arno« 

♦  Dollinger,  Gentile  and  Jew,  vol.  ii.  p  243. 
t  De  lib.  educ,  15.  §  Amores,  51. 

t  Pyrrh.  Hypot.,  iil  23.  |J  Tusc,  iv.  23- 


20  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

bius,*  in  his  awful  picture  of  the  nations 
without  Christ,  whose  Hteral  truthfulness  one 
cannot  contemplate  without  a  shudder,  bears 
copious  witness  to  the  same.  That  profligacy 
unbounded  reigned  openly  in  the  highest  circles 
of  Greek  and  Roman  life,  is  beyond  any  question. 
The  stories  told  of  Pericles  and  Lysias  and 
Demosthenes  and  Socrates,  and  of  Caesar  and 
Augustus  and  Pompey  and  Cato  and  Catiline 
and  Sylla  and  Crassus  and  Antony,  —  told  openly 
and  without  contradiction  by  the  authors  of  the 
time,  told  often,  and  without  any  shame,  by  the 
persons  themselves,  as  by  Horace  and  Martial 
and  Catullus, —  seem  to  show  all  society  plunged 
in  a  night  of  unbroken  darkness,  wherein  the 
wild  beasts  of  unbridled  appetites  and  lusts 
hunt  unhindered  their  prey.  Marriage  became 
a  burden,  t  Children  were  an  incumbrance,  and 
might  be  destroyed  with  impunity,  either  before 
or  after  their  birth.  Abortion  by  the  mothers, 
or  the  exposition  of  newly-born  children  in  an 
*  Adversus  Gentes.  t  Plato,  Symp.,  192. 


THE    UNCHRISTIAN   WORLD. 


out-of-the-way  or  unfrequented  spot,  to  allow  of 
the  child's  perishing,  are  formally  approved  and 
recommended  by  philosophers  like  Plato  *  and 
Aristotle,  f  This  exposure  of  children  to 
perish  was  also  formally  permitted  by  law  in 
Athens  and  Sparta,  and  is  so  often  mentioned, 
that  it  cannot  have  been  of  rare  occurrence. 
Divorces  became  so  common  in  Rome,  that 
Seneca  says,  "  There  is  not  a  woman  left  who 
is  ashamed  of  being  divorced,  now  that  most  of 
the  high  and  distinguished  ladies  count  their 
years,  not  by  the  consular  fasti,  but  by  the 
number  of  husbands,  and  are  divorced  in  order 
to  marry,  and  marry  in  order  to  be  divorced."  J 
Pity  for  the  poor  was  so  wanting  in  the  Roman 
mind,  that  Virgil,  §  when  describing  the  peace 
and  repose  of  the  wise  man,  extols  him  for  being 
exempted  from  feeling  pity  for  a  needy  person. 
The  slave  in  Rome  had  no  personal  rights.  He 
was  a  chattel  for  whose  treatment,  even  though 

*  Republic,  v.  460.  J  De  Benefic,  iii.  16. 

t  Polit.,  vii.  14,  10.  §  Geor.,  ii.  449. 


22  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

it  was  torture  or  death,  there  was  no  one  to 
bring  his  master  to  account.  Every  thing  was 
allowable  and  privileged  as  against  a  slave.* 
Florus  relates  the  following  incident :  "  At 
the  time  in  which  L.  Domitius  was  praetor  in 
Sicily,  a  slave  killed  a  wild  boar  of  extraordinary 
size.  The  praetor,  struck  by  the  dexterity  and 
courage  of  the  man,  desired  to  see  him.  The 
poor  wretch,  highly  gratified  with  the  distinction, 
came  to  present  himself  before  the  praetor,  in 
hopes,  no  doubt,  of  praise  and  reward  ;  but 
Domitius,  on  learning  that  he  had  only  a  javelin 
to  attack  and  kill  the  boar,  ordered  him  to  be 
instantly  crucified,  under  the  pretext  that  the 
law  prohibited  the  use  of  this  weapon,  as  of  all 
others,  to  slaves."!  After  relating  the  incident, 
the  author  naively  remarks,  "  This  may  appear 
harsh,  nor  do  I  give  any  opinion  on  the  subject.'' 
In  Greece,  slavery  was  really  the  corner-stone 

*  Dollinger,  Gentile  and  Jew,  vol.  ii.  p.  259. 
I  Epitome  de  Gestis  Romanorum,  iii.  19,  20;  Gibbon,  vol.  I 
p.  48. 


THE    UNCHRISTIAN    WORLD. 


of  society.  The  whole  social  and  political 
fabric  rested  on  it.  Aristotle  argues*  that 
slavery  is  necessary  to  the  very  existence  of 
the  true  household.  Every  true  household  must 
consist  of  freemen  and  slaves.  The  freeman 
needs  his  slaves,  as  the  artist  needs  his  tools. 
The  slave  is  his  master's  tool,  —  an  animated 
tool,  but  still  only  a  tool.  There  can  be  but  little 
more  love  for  a  slave  than  for  a  horse  or  an  ox  ; 
and  the  thought  that  any  justice  could  be  due 
a  slave  never  seems  to  have  entered  the  Greek 
mind.  Plato  f  regarded  it  as  one  of  the  marks 
of  an  educated  man  that  he  despised  his  slaves. 
When  a  slave  was  brought  into  court  to  give 
testimony,  he  was  always  put  to  the  torture. 
Torture  accompanied  the  testimony  of  the  slave, 
just  as  the  oath  accompanied  that  of  freemen  ; 
and  the  Attic  orators  —  Lysias,  Antiphon,  Isaeus, 
Isocrates,  Demosthenes,  and  Lycurgus  —  have 
all  given  their  approbation  to  this  procedure. 
For  the  owner  of  a  slave  to  refuse  to  submit 

*  Polit.,  i.  3 ;  Eth.  Nic,  viii.  13.       t  Republic,  viii.  549. 


24  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

his  slave  to  the  torture  (the  slave  himself  had 
nothing  to  say)  was  considered  a  confession  of 
the  owner's  guilt.  Not  only  foreigners,  —  Ca- 
rians,  Phrygians,  Thracians,  and  Cappadocians, 
—  but  Greeks  themselves,  were  held  as  slaves, 
and  bought  and  sold  by  the  Greeks.  But  of  what- 
ever nationality,  and  whoever  he  was,  fear  and 
lust  were  the  only  motives  in  the  life  of  the 
Greek  slave ;  the  latter  of  which  was  continually 
leading  him  into  every  form  of  vice,  gluttony, 
drunkenness,  and  wantonness.  I  suppose  it  to 
be  literally  true,  that  no  vice,  nor  crime,  nor 
cruelty  can  be  named  which  did  not  show  itself 
at  home  in  the  highest  circles  of  the  most 
blooming  society  of  the  ancient  world.  Pliny  * 
expressly  calls  the  Gr-eeks  the  inventors  of 
every  vice.  The  greediness  and  craft  and  lying 
of  the  Greeks  were  a  proverb.  Distrust  of  his 
neighbors  grew  out  of  the  knowledge  every 
man  possessed  of  his  own  untrustworthiness. 
When  the  power  of  Rome  was  extended  ovei 

*  Hist.  Nal.,  XV.  5. 


THE    UNCHRISTIAN    WORLD.  25 

the  world,  it  carried  with  it  the  moral  corruption 
of  Rome,  and  brought  back,  also,  the  corruption 
which  it  everywhere  found.  Tacitus*  confesses 
that  the  Romans  had  more  power  over  the 
peoples  whom  they  conquered,  by  exciting  and 
gratifying  their  sensual  tastes  than  by  their 
arms.  The  picture  which  Paul  has  given  in  the 
first  chapter  of  Romans,  of  the  unchristian 
world  is  still  and  has  always  been  literally  true ; 
ancient  or  modern,  it  is  the  same  :  "  Filled  with 
all  unrighteousness,  fornication,  wickedness, 
covetousness,  maliciousness  ;  full  of  envy,  mur- 
der, debate,  deceit,  malignity ;  whisperers,  back- 
biters, haters  of  God,  despiteful,  proud,  boasters, 
inventors  of  evil  things,  disobedient  to  parents, 
without  understanding,  covenant-breakers,  with- 
out natural  affection,  implacable,  unmerciful : 
who  knowing  the  judgment  of  God,  that  they 
which  commit  such  things  are  worthy  of  death, 
not  only  do  the  same,  but  have  pleasure  in  them 
that  do  them."     There  is  no  abatement  to  be 

♦  Hist.,  iv.  64. 


26  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 


made  from  this  picture.  We  can  neither  dimin- 
ish the  darkness  of  its  colors  nor  the  terrible- 
ness  of  its  extent.  And  it  is  just  as  true  of 
the  heathen  world  to-day,  as  in  the  time  of  Paul. 
This  condition  is  not  going  to  better  itself. 
We  are  often  told  of  tendencies  inherent  in 
human  nature,  which  will  work  out  by  them- 
selves the  perfection  of  the  human  life.  We  are 
treated,  in  our  time,  to  much  talk  about  evolu- 
tion and  development,  by  which  man  has  grown, 
first  from  a  lower  order  of  creation  to  a  savage 
state,  and  then  has  risen  from  the  savage,  through 
successive  stages,  to  the  highest  plane  of  civil- 
ized life.  But  such  talk  is  in  flat  contradiction 
to  the  most  palpable  facts  of  history.  We  find 
no  evidence  of  an  originally  savage  condition  of 
mankind.  The  earliest  historic  records  we  have 
of  human  life  upon  the  earth  are  records  of  cities 
and  sciences,  and  monuments  of  art  and  govern- 
ments, all  showing  a  condition  of  high  individual 
and  social  power.  The  traditions  of  different 
nations  point  back  to  a  primeval  period  which 


THE    UNCHRISTIAN    WORLD. 


was  a  golden  age  of  innocence  and  knowledge. 
There  is  good  evidence  that  the  Great  Pyramid 
is  the  oldest  work  of  human  hands  now  exist- 
ing ;  *  and  this  stupendous  structure,  which  forty 
centuries  have  left  almost  unimpaired,  shows  a 
skill  and  science  in  its  builders,  which  are  still 
the  admiration  and  the  wonder  of  the  world. 
The  earliest  facts  of  language,  the  deep  knowl- 
edge of  architecture  and  astronomy  and  geome- 
try and  natural  philosophy,  which  incontestably 
existed  in  the  earliest  times  of  which  we  have 
any  trace,  in  Egypt  and  Chaldaea  and  India  and 
China,  the  prominence  and  the  power  with  which 
religion  controlled  the  political  and  social  order, 
and  entered  into  the  science  and  the  art  of  the 
ancient  world,  are  simply  inexplicable,  if  barba- 
rism or  a  savage  state  were  the  original  condi- 
tion of  the  race. 

The  history  of  men  thus  far  shows  vastly 
more  instances  of  decay  than  of  progress.  Gov- 
ernments, arts,  languages,  literatures,  sciences, 

♦  Smyth,  Antiquity  of  Intellectual  Man. 


28  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

civilizations,  religions,  have  deteriorated  in  in- 
stances unnumbered.  Law  has  grown  into  des- 
potism ;  liberty  has  degenerated  into  license ; 
public  morals  have  been  sunk  in  public  corrup- 
tion ;  and  the  virtues  of  men  have  been  sup- 
planted by  their  vices  on  so  vast  a  scale,  that 
whether  in  respect  of  the  numbers  it  has  con- 
trolled, or  the  extent  of  time  and  territory  which 
it  has  covered,  a  downward  tendency  in  human 
mature,  it  must  be  confessed,  is  vastly  more 
conspicuous  than  any  inherent  tendency  to 
improve. 

This  downward  tendency,  moreover,  has  never 
been  checked  by  itself.  No  nation  has  ever 
risen,  by  its  own  forces  alone,  from  a  lower  to 
a  higher  state.  All  upward  impulses  come  first 
from  above.  The  savage  has  never  civilized 
himself.  "  No  man,"  says  Herder,  "  has  the 
birth  of  his  mind,  any  more  than  that  of  his 
body,  through  himself  alone."  And  it  is  w'th 
masses  as  it  is  with  individuals  :  the  impulse 
to  rise,  and  the  inspiration  to  rise,  must  come 


THE    UNCHRISTIAN    WORLD.  2g 

from  without.  The  Greeks  saw  this  truth,  and 
declared,  in  their  Promethean  myth,  that  the 
fires  which  Hghten  men  in  their  advancement 
are  stolen  from  the  gods.  We  can  have  no 
accurate  reading  of  history,  except  as  we  recog- 
nize what  is  actually  revealed  on  every  page 
of  history,  that  human  nature  possesses  no 
inherent  power  of  progressive  improvement. 
All  its  exhibitions  of  inherent  power  show 
only  a  progressive  deterioration.  Except  as 
one  nation  receives  impressions  from  another, 
or  is  lifted  up  by  some  manifestly  super- 
human power,  its  actual  course  has  been  a 
descent  from  one  degree  of  degradation  and 
shame  to  another.  No  student  of  history  will 
deny  this  most  obvious  fact.  "  Civilization," 
says  Niebuhr,  one  of  the  most  sagacious  of  all 
historians,  "is  never  indigenous:  it  is  an  exotic 
plant  wherever  found." 

Given,  then,  this  actual  state  of  the  unchris- 
tian world,  given,  also,  this  tendency  to  dete- 
riorate, and   this  inability  in   human  nature  to 

3* 


30  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

better  itself,  what  sort  of  counteracting  impulse 
is  needed  ?  If  we  have  any  advancing  civiliza- 
tion ourselves,  which,  of  all  its  elements,  shall 
be  employed  to  bring  the  unchristian  nations 
of  the  world  into  the  same  line  of  progress  ? 


SECOND    LECTURE. 

FAILURE    OF    THE     ORDINARY     APPLIANCES     OF 
CIVILIZATION   TO    IMPROVE   THE   WORLD. 

To  the  question  at  the  close  of  our  last  lec- 
ture many  answers  are  actually  given ;  the  first 
of  which  in  importance,  to  many  minds,  points 
to  commerce,  and  to  the  ordinary  influence  of 
Christian  nations,  as  the  all-sufficient  agency  we 
need.  But  does  commerce  civilize  ?  Can  trade 
of  itself  make  men  pure  ?  Unless  guided  and 
guarded  by  some  other  influence  than  their  own, 
is  there  any  thing  in  buying  or  selling  to  make 
men  better  ?  Nay,  does  not  the  greed  of  gain 
grow  by  its  own  exercise  ?  and  is  there  not  always 
danger,  even  where  virtuous  impulses  hold  it  in 
check,  that  its  increase  will  weaken  these  and 
all  other  restraints,  until  it  shall  destroy  them  ? 

3» 


32  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

There  is  ever  the  possibility  that  trade  will  make 
honest  men  dishonest :  is  there  the  least  likeli- 
hood that  it  alone  can  ever  produce  the  reverse 
result  ?  Honesty,  one  says,  is  the  best  policy ; 
but  was  ever  a  community,  was  ever  a  man,  made 
honest  because  it  was  politic  to  be  so  ?  More- 
over, since  the  world  began,  the  most  lucrative 
commerce,  the  commerce  most  tempting  for  its 
promise  of  large  and  speedy  gains,  has  always 
been  that  which  has  trafficked  with  the  bodies 
or  the  souls  of  men,  as  is  witnessed  by  the 
slave-trade,  the  opium-trade,  and  the  trade  in  in- 
toxicating drinks.  There  is  no  probability,  there- 
fore, in  the  nature  of  the  case,  that  commerce 
will  improve  men  in  their  moral  stature ;  neither, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  do  we  ever  find  it  doing  so. 
The  actual  results  of  commerce  have  never 
appeared  in  the  moral  improvement  of  men  ; 
while  in  unnumbered  instances  they  have  worked 
deterioration  and  decay.  Commerce,  to-day,  is 
more  widely  extended  than  ever  before ;  and 
many  fancy,  that,  through  its  avenues.  Christian 


FAILURES   TO    IMPROVE   THE   WORLD.         33 

missions  will  find  easy  access  to  the  nations 
without  Christ.  But,  instead  of  this  being  jus- 
tified by  facts,  the  exact  opposite  is  true.  In- 
stead of  being  favorable  to  missionary  success, 
the  actual  influence  of  commerce  is  one  of  the 
strongest  hinderances  to  Christian  missions.  No 
missionary  whom  I  have  ever  found  doubts  this. 
No  traveller  with  his  eyes  open,  and  willing  to 
see,  but  will  find  irresistible  evidence  of  the  fact. 
When  missionaries  set  before  the  heathen  the 
virtues  which  Christianity  enjoins,  and  which 
they  affirm  it  is  able  to  secure,  and  when  rep- 
resentatives of  nominally  Christian  lands  show 
themselves  not  only  lacking  in  these  virtues,  but 
abundant  in  all  the  opposite  vices,  —  as  is  with 
sad  frequency  and  prominence  the  case,  —  it  is 
easy  to  see  which  of  these  conflicting  represen- 
tations is  likely  to  prevail. 

And  if  you  turn  to  Christian  governments, 
and  expect  that  these,  by  their  high-toned  moral- 
ity, by  their  unselfishness  and  love  of  justice, 
are  likely,  in  their  dealings  with  the  unchris- 


34  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

tian  world,  to  represent  attractively  the  Christian 
spirit,  you  will  soon  learn  that  these  same  gov- 
ernments have  not  shrunk  from  the  grossest 
wrongs,  and  are  very  ill  prepared  to  be  messen- 
gers of  peace  and  purity.  Witness  England  in 
the  opium-war  with  China,  and  the  United 
States  in  our  difficulty  with  Corea,  and  the  pro- 
ceedings of  England  and  Holland  with  the  Achi- 
nese,  and  the  attitude  of  our  government  still  in 
reference  to  the  Japanese  indemnity  !  Witness, 
also,  the  support  of  the  English  Government,  con- 
tinued up  to  a  very  late  date,  of  Pagan  customs 
and  worship  in  India, —  a  support  not  simply  of 
permission,  but  of  active  contribution,  —  coupled 
with  the  early  refusal  of  permission  for  Chris- 
tian missionaries  to  land  or  stay  there,  and  the 
still  continued  prohibition  of  all  Christian 
instruction  in  the  schools  which  the  English 
Government  has  there  established !  Take  in  the 
whole  attitude  of  the  Christian  nations  of  the 
world  towards  the  unchristian,  as  seen  in  com- 
merce,  or  in  governmental  or  national  inter- 


FAILURES    TO    IMPROVE    THE    WORLD.         35 

course,  and  on  what  ground  can  you  look  for  the 
'.mprovement  of  the  world  from  this  source  ? 

But  will  railroads  and  telegraphs,  and  the  con- 
veniences of  modern  life,  give  us  any  hope  ?  Why 
should  they  ?  Does  the  use  of  railroads  make 
men  honest  here  ?  Is  the  management  of  these 
great  institutions  a  conspicuous  agency  of  moral 
reform  among  ourselves  ?  We  need  not  depre- 
ciate the  good  which  these  appliances  bring ;  but 
it  is  a  very  misguided  view  which  finds  in  them 
any  thing  in  the  least  likely  to  regenerate  and 
purify  society.  At  the  best,  they  are  only 
means  whereby  other  agencies  for  human  im- 
provement may  be  facilitated. 

But  if  commerce,  and  national  intercourse, 
and  labor-saving  inventions,  and  all  the  mechanic 
arts  of  our  so-called  modern  progress,  are  without 
avail,  there  are  many  who  think  that  the  higher 
arts  of  civilization,  —  as  seen  in  modern  forms 
of  government,  and  new  institutions  of  society, 
and  scientific  methods  of  education,  —  directly 
transplanted  from  the  civilized  to  the  uncivilized 


36  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

world,  will  carry  with  them  every  needed  bless- 
ing; while  others,  who  look  upon  the  gospel  as 
the  only  ultimate  means  of  salvation,  still  regard 
these  higher  arts  of  civilization  as  the  needful 
first  step  towards  the  evangelization  of  the 
nations.  Bishop  Warburton,  in  his  "Divine 
Legation  of  Moses,"  *  declares  that  both  Romish 
and  Protestant  missions  had,  up  to  his  time,  failed 
of  the  largest  results,  because  they  had  attempted 
to  Christianize,  without  previously  civilizing,  the 
heathen.  "  Christianity,"  he  says,t  "  plain  and 
simple  as  it  is,  and  fitted  in  its  nature  for  what 
it  was  designed  by  its  author,  requires  an  intel- 
lect above  that  of  a  mere  savage  to  understand." 
Bishop  Bloomfield  J  remarks,  "  The  Christian 
religion  may  be  said  to  form  a  kind  of  science  ; 
for  which  very  reason  (and  would  that  some 
v/ho  have  a  zeal,  but  not  according  to  knowledge, 
will  bear  it  in  mind ! )  civilization  ought  ever 
to  precede  evangelization."  Missionaries  them- 
selves have  not  been  wanting  in  the  same  senti- 

♦  Book  ii.  sect.  v.    t  Vol.  i.  p.  398.    %  Notes,  Heb.  v.  12. 


FAILURES   TO    IMPROVE   THE   WORLD.  3/ 

ment.  Hans  Egede,  the  Danish  missionary  to 
Greenland,  after  his  five  and  twenty  years'  ex- 
perience there,  declares  *  that  "  it  is  a  matter 
which  cannot  be  questioned,  that,  if  you  will  make 
a  Christian  out  of  a  mere  savage  and  wild  man, 
you  must  first  make  him  a  reasonable  man.  It 
would  contribute  a  great  deal  to  forward  their 
conversion,  if  they  could,  by  degrees,  be  brought 
into  a  settled  way  of  life."  Such  a  notion  has 
been  effectually  banished  from  those  familiar 
with  later  missionary  experiences  among  the 
Caffres  and  the  Karens,  among  the  New-Zealand- 
ers  and  the  Hawaiians,  among  the  North  Ameri- 
can Indians  and  other  savage  tribes  ;  but  we 
find  it  so  prominently  cropping  out  still  in  many 
quarters,  among  those  more  or  less  ignorant  of, 
even  if  not  indifferent  to,  the  highest  missionary 
success,  that  it  demands  a  careful  examination. 

It  should  be  noted,  then,  in  the  first  place,  that 
savages  do  not  cease  to  be  savages  merely  by 
having    the    opportunity    to    become    civilized 

*  Pp.  211,  212,  quoted  by  Warbuiton,  vol.  i.  p.  433. 
4 


38  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

Civilization  is  not  attractive  to  the  savage.  The 
arts  and  refinements  of  civilized  life,  the  bless- 
ings of  law  and  order,  instead  of  being  objects 
of  desire,  are,  to  him,  positively  repugnant. 
This,  in  fact,  is  what  makes  him  a  savage,  that 
he  hates  the  very  condition  in  which  the  civil- 
ized man  finds  his  joy.  He  is  conscious  of  but 
few  wants,  and  those  of  the  si;nplest  sort,  which 
it  needs  but  few  efforts  to  satisfy  ;  and  the  gifts 
of  civilization,  for  which  he  feels  no  necessity, 
offer  him,  therefore,  no  advantages  which  he 
can  appreciate,  and  can  excite  in  him  no  efforts 
to  obtain  them.  It  should  never  be  forgotten, 
that  the  first  impulse  to  any  improvement  of  a 
man's  outward  condition  must  come  from  the 
quickening  of  some  inner  inspiration ;  and,  until 
the  savage  has  risen  to  a  different  intellectual 
or  spiritual  life,  all  the  blandishments  of  civiliza- 
tion could  no  more  win  him  to  a  better  state 
than  could  all  the  warmth  of  the  sun  woo  a 
desert  into  a  fruitful  field.  When,  in  the  good 
intentions  of  the  government,  homes  were  built. 


FAILURES   TO    IMPROVE   THE   WORLD.  39 

and  the  conveniences  of  civilized  life  were 
freely  offered  to  the  Chippewas  of  Canada,  in 
order  to  win  them  to  abandon  their  wandering 
ways,  it  was  found  that  the  Indians  preferred 
their  wigwams;  and  the  comfortable  houses 
which  had  been  provided  found  no  occupants. 
The  Quakers  commenced  their  efforts  with  the 
Indians  by  attempting  to  civilize  them ;  but, 
after  many  years  of  costly  and  painstaking  effort 
in  this  direction,  the  committee  having  it  in 
charge  report,  "  Within  the  last  few  years,  we 
have  had  occasion  to  review  the  whole  course  of 
proceedings  ;  and  we  have  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion, from  a  deliberate  view  of  the  past,  that  we 
erred,  sorrowfully  erred,  in  the  plan  which  was 
originally  adopted  in  making  civilization  the  first 
object ;  for  we  cannot  count  on  a  single  individ- 
ual that  we  have  brought  to  the  full  adoption  of 
Christianity."* 

*  Evidence  on  the  Aborigines,  before  a  Committee  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  1S33-34,  p.  187,  quoted  by  Harris;  Great 
Commission,  p.  297. 


40  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

But  what  if  we  could  educate  the  savage? 
Yet  how  shall  this  be  done?  If  you  send 
teachers,  and  start  schools,  and  furnish  the  sav- 
age with  all  the  appliances  for  the  most  exten- 
sive culture,  how  shall  you  induce  him  to  employ 
the  means  with  which  you  furnish  him  ?  He 
does  not  desire  knowledge  any  more  than  he 
does  the  power  which  knowledge  brings.  He  is 
as  indifferent  to  his  ignorance  as  he  is  to  what 
you  call  the  comfort  and  conveniences  of  civil- 
ized life.  While  he  must  have  knowledge,  and 
some  intellectual  quickening,  in  order  that  he 
may  seek  any  improvement  in  his  physical  or 
bodily  state,  there  must,  also,  be  something  prior 
to  the  knowledge,  and  earlier  than  the  intellect- 
ual quickening,  before  he  can  desire  these.  A 
moral  and  spiritual  awakening  must  precede  the 
intellectual.  Men  merged  in  sensualism,  argues 
Plato  in  the  "  Sophist,"  must  be  improved  before 
they  can  be  instructed.  Only  as  they  become 
morally  better  can  they  become  intellectually 
elevated  and  enlarged.     There  is   here  a  deep 


FAILURES   TO    IMPROVE   THE   WORLD.         4I 

truth  of  human  nature  and  of  history,  which,  if 
well  considered,  would  settle  this  whole  question. 
Men  must  be  improved  in  order  to  be  educated. 
Education  follows  as  surely  a  moral  improve- 
ment as  flowers  open  to  the  sunlight ;  but  educa- 
tion is  as  powerless  to  secure  that  improvement 
as  is  the  plant  the  light  and  warmth  by  which  it 
is  quickened.  As  far  as  we  can  trace  it  histori- 
cally, a  nation's  intellectual  progress  has  always 
followed,  never  preceded,  some  new  moral  or 
spiritual  impulse.  If  we  look  at  nations  noted 
for  their  achievements  of  intellect,  —  Egypt, 
Greece,  India,  China,  or  any  of  the  cultivated 
nations  of  the  modern  world,  —  we  shall  find  that 
their  culture  always  grounds  itself  in  their  mo- 
rality or  religion.  Take,  to  illustrate  this,  any  of 
the  arts  which  mark  the  culture  of  a  people,  and 
trace  their  origin  and  history.  It  might  be 
crudely  supposed  that  architecture  arose  from  the 
natural  necessity  man  has  of  furnishing  himself 
a  shelter  and  a  dwelling-place.  But  allowing 
this  natural  necessity  to  exist,  and  supposing  it 


42  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

to  have  found  its  natural  expression,  the  result 
has  no  more  resemblance  to  architecture  than 
have  the  huts  of  a  Hottentot  kraal  to  the  pal- 
aces of  Vienna  and  Versailles.  Man's  natural 
want  of  a  shelter  can  be  supplied,  and,  if  we 
look  simply  at  numbers,  is  supplied,  by  the  great 
majority  of  men,  with  as  little  beauty  and  as 
little  architectural  skill  as  are  found  in  the 
habitations  of  the  ant  or  the  beaver. 

But,  aside  from  this,  the  simple  truth  is,  that 
the  history  of  architecture  does  not  begin  with 
the  history  of  human  homes.  The  oldest  re- 
mains of  architecture  are  symbols  and  monu- 
ments of  religious  faith.  Columns  and  colon- 
nades and  temples,  structures  erected  for  wor- 
ship, or  to  symbolize  some  object  or  doctrine  of 
religion  —  these,  and  not  human  dwellings,  are 
the  earliest  indications  we  ha\^  of  the  dawn  of 
architecture.  Looking  now,  not  in  the  light  of 
any  theory  which  prejudges  the  facts,  but  only 
at  the  facts  themselves,  we  are  obliged  to  say 
that  it  was  not  the  construction  of  his  dwelling- 


FAILURES   TO    IMPROVE    THE    WORLD.  43 

house  which  taught  man  to  build  his  temple, 
but  exactly  the  other  way. 

The  same  is  true  with  sculpture,  painting, 
poetry,  music.  It  was  a  religious  impulse  which 
gave  to  all  these  their  first  inspiration.  The 
oldest  monuments  we  possess  of  any  of  these 
arts  are  associated  with  some  religious  rite  or 
faith.  But,  more  than  this,  we  must  also  notice 
the  undoubted  fact,  that  the  arts  have  grown  in 
glory  just  as  the  religious  sentiment  has  gained 
in  power.  The  period  of  decadence  in  art  is 
always  indicated  by  a  prior  decline  in  religion. 
There  is  no  high  art,  and  I  suspect  we  may  also 
say,  there  is  never  a  great  genius,  uninspired  by 
some  sort  of  a  religious  sentiment  and  impulse. 
It  is  no  question  here,  whether  the  religion  be 
false  or  true,  fancied  or  real :  the  only  point  is, 
that  it  is  religion,  and  not  science  nor  philosophy, 
which  gives  the  inspiration  to  art,  and  the  living 
soul  to  genius. 

This  truth,  that  the  culture  of  the  sentiments 
must   precede   that  of    thought,    and    that   the 


44  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

thoughts  of  the  intellect  will  be  lofty  as  the 
sentiments  of  the  heart  are  profound,  is  not  now 
seen  for  the  first  time.  Plato,  Aristotle,  and 
Bacon  have  expressed  the  same  thing.  "  It  was 
a  happy  genealogy,"  says  Plato,*  "  which  made 
Iris,  the  swift-winged  messenger  of  the  gods,  by 
which  divine  thoughts  are  communicated  to  the 
human  soul,  the  daughter  of  Thaumas,  or  Won- 
der." Aristotle  speaks  to  the  same  effect  when 
he  calls  f  wonder  the  primitive  philosophic  im- 
pulse ;  and  Bacon  only  re-echoes  the  thought  J 
in  his  "Admiratio  est  semen  sapientiae."  If, 
therefore,  we  begin  our  attempts  to  improve  men 
through  instruction  of  their  intellect,  we  shall 
end  where  wc  begin,  having  only  blown  a  bubble, 
which  bursts  as  soon  as  blown. 

But,  beyond  all  this,  there  is  another  ground 
on  which  the  failure  of  education  to  do  the  work 
we  need  may  be  predicted.  If  you  could  start 
with  education,  and  carry  it  on  to  any  degree,  this 
is  not  sufficient  to  remove  the   corruption  with 

*  ThesBtus,  155.    t  Metaph.,  i.  2.    J  De.  Aug.  Sci.,  i. 


FAILURES   TO    IMPROVE   THE   WORLD.         45 

which  men  are  perishing.  No  amount  of  intel- 
ligence ever  saved  any  people ;  and  the  most 
costly  educational  system  is  consistent  with, 
and  is  sometimes  actually  found  in,  the  most 
corrupt  social  state.  At  the  very  time  when 
Athens  was  shining  with  the  light  of  art  and 
philosophy,  whose  splendors  still  illumine  the. 
world,  the  utmost  profligacy  and  debauchery 
also  prevailed,  and  this  not  simply  with  the  slave 
and  the  outcast,  or  with  the  common  people, 
but,  as  we  have  already  noted,  with  the  very 
men  —  the  artists  and  philosophers  and  schol- 
ars —  who  mark  their  time  with  their  glory.  He 
who  supposes  that  splendid  intellect,  or  high 
attainments,  joined  with  exalted  rank  in  society, 
are  sufficient  to  make  men  pure  and  blessed, 
can  be  easily  convinced  of  his  mistake,  if  will- 
ing to  be  convinced.  I  will  not  ask  him  to  read 
the  lives  of  Roman  emperors  and  empresses,  of 
Nero  and  Caligula,  and  Commodus  and  Cara- 
calla,  nor  to  look  at  Alcibiades  and  the  social 
life  of  Athens  in  its  palmy  days ;  but  let  him 


46  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

come  nearer  our  own  time ;  let  him  peruse  the 
"Confessions  of  Rousseau,"  and  the  French  Mem- 
oirs generally  of  the  last  century ;  let  him  see 
the  court  ladies  of  Louis  XV.  present  in  their 
richest  ornaments  at  the  tearing- to-pieces  of 
Damiens,  and  expending  their  pity  upon  the 
noble  horses  which  found  it  so  hard  to  accom- 
plish their  horrid  work  ;  let  him  become  familiar 
with  the  facts  illustrative  of  this  point  in  the 
French  Revolution,  turning  his  attention  not 
simply  to  the  raging  of  the  rabble,  —  of  whose 
unnumbered  atrocities  the  tearing-out  of  the 
heart,  and  drinking  the  blood,  of  the  Princess 
Lamballe,  whom  they  had  just  slain  in  the 
streets,  is  only  an  instance,  —  but  especially 
noting  the  proceedings  of  those  scholarly  and 
highly-cultivated  men  and  women  of  their  time, 
of  whom  one  writer  *  has  said,  that  they  "  found 
their  highest  pleasure  in  the  most  abominable 
sensualities  and  deeds  of  murder,  and  who, 
together  with  this,    sought    always  to    display 

*  Ackerman,  Christian  Element  in  Plato,  p.  196. 


FAILURES    TO    IMPROVE    THE    WORLD.         47 

their  mental  cultivation  in  the  most  splendid 
manner  in  public  and  social  life,"  —  let  one  with 
only  a  cursory  reading  of  history  but  ponder  the 
facts  which  he  finds,  and  the  need  will  be  clear 
enough  of  something  more  than  knowledge,  or 
culture,  or  refinement  of  manners,  to  make  men 
virtuous  and  pure. 

There  is  in  India  a  large  class  of  educated 
Hindus,  who  have  been  carefully  trained  in 
English  schools,  whose  literary  culture  would  be 
conspicuous,  judged  by  our  own  standard,  and 
who  have  so  far  broken  from  their  old  super- 
stitions, that  they  would  be  almost  as  much 
shocked  as  we  ourselves  to  be  now  called  idol- 
aters ;  but,  whether  their  high  education  has 
furnished  them  any  moral  improvement,  they 
themselves  shall  say.  In  a  paper*  conducted 
wholly  in  the  interest  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj, 
and  representing  as  much,  if  not  more  than,  any 
other  paper  in  India,  the  intelligence  of  the  edu- 
cated Hindus  who  are  not  Christian,  I  read  the 

*  Indian  Mirror,  September,  1873. 


48  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

following:  "The  Hindu  heretic  sees  no  via 
media  between  orthodoxy  and  irreligion,  and 
plunges  head  foremost  into  habits  of  dissipation, 
carnality,  and  dishonesty.  Unbelief  acts  on  the 
lower  propensities  of  the  mind,  and  stimulates 
them.  Where  there  is  no  fear  of  social  or  reli- 
gious discipline,  the  heart  naturally  runs  into 
vicious  excesses.  There  are  many  of  the 
young  Bengal  school  who  give  up  Hinduism, 
then  become  intemperate,  lustful,  dishonest, 
untruthful,  and  then  become  rationalists  and  infi- 
dels, with  a  view  to  justify  their  sins  with  false 
philosophy.  Their  infidelity  and  sin  act  and 
re-act  on  each  other,  and  grow  simultaneously. 
Our  young  countrymen  ought  to  know  that 
rationalism  is,  in  many  cases,  immorality  in  a 
philosophical  garb,  and  scepticism  is  the  fore- 
runner of  a  multitude  of  vices." 

No  wise  man  will  decry  intellectual  culture. 
Only  ignorance  despises  knowledge.  But  the 
knowledge  which  is  not  inspired  by  virtue  can 
give  no  inspiration  to  virtue.     Unless  it  strikes 


FAILURES   TO    IMPROVE   THE   WORLD.         49 

its  roots  in  a  soil  already  pure,  its  blossoms  and 
fruit  will  be  only  corrupt  and  corrupting.  A 
godless  education  is  not  an  object  of  wise  desire 
for  any  people.  It  has  no  power  to  purify,  and 
thus  no  salvation.  It  does  not  draw  out  the 
roots  of  evil,  but,  rather,  strikes  them  deeper 
into  the  soul.  It  may  deck  the  evil  in  a  garb  of 
beauty,  and  weave  for  it  garlands  of  song ;  but 
it  is  evil  none  the  less:  and,  by  making  its  mani- 
festations more  attractive,  it  only  enables  it, 
like  Satan  when  robed  in  his  garments  of  light, 
the  more  effectually  to  deceive. 

But  it  is  said  that  we  can  reach  the  trouble 
by  giving  instruction  in  morality.  This  attempt 
has  been  often  made.  The  argument  in  its 
behalf  is  plausible.  Men  are  immoral :  therefore 
teacii  them  morality.  Set  before  them  their 
duty,  and  make  this  so  clear  that  it  cannot  be 
mistaken;  and  then  the  weight  of  obligation  will 
be  so  strong,  that  it  must  be  obeyed.  But  no 
man  does  his  duty  simply  because  he  knows 
what  his  duty  is.     Unless  he  loves  it,  no  clear* 


50  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

ness  of  knowledge  will  ever  induce  his  obedi^ 
ence.  Men  are  not,  and  certainly  it  is  true  in 
general  that  they  never  have  been,  raised  from 
vice  to  virtue,  from  sin  to  holiness,  from  moral 
sickness  to  moral  health,  by  morality  alone. 
No  matter  how  pure  it  may  be,  no  preaching  of 
morality  has  ever  sunk  deep  into  society,  or 
shown  itself  able  to  have  any  wide  control  over 
the  conduct  of  men.  It  has  never  shown  itself 
able  to  mould  society  internally  and  from  the 
centre.  You  cannot  make  a  man  virtuous, 
simply  by  teaching  him  virtue.  You  cannot  be 
certain  that  a  child  will  practise  the  ten  com- 
mandments, simply  because  he  has  learned  them 
by  heart.  The  teaching  is,  of  course,  well,  is 
not  only  important,  but  indispensable.  How 
can  men  be  led  to  do  their  duty,  unless  they  are 
first  led  to  know  it  ?  How  shall  they  believe  in 
Him  of  whom  they  have  not  heard }  But,  not- 
withstanding this,  all  the  knowledge  which  men 
obtain  of  the  divine  commands,  and  their  duty, 
never  has  been  sufficient  to  lead  them  to  a  true 


FAILURES   TO    IMPROVE   THE    WORLD.  5  I 

obedience.  No  theory  of  human  nature  is  deep 
and  thorough  which  does  not  recognize  the 
actual  foundation  for  this  fact ;  and  no  observa- 
tion of  human  conduct  is  wide  or  penetrating, 
which  has  not  seen  its  frequent  exhibitions. 

But  can  poUtical  and  social  changes  do  the 
work  ?  Shall  we  preach  republicanism,  and  go 
with  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the 
doctrine  of  social  equality,  to  the  nations  in 
darkness  ?  Alas  !  unless  there  be  a  foundation 
laid  in  the  purified  and  prepared  character  of  a 
people,  we  could  only  build  the  republic  upon 
the  sands,  to  fall  with  the  first  flood,  bringing 
only  ruin  in  its  fall.  Political  and  social  institu- 
tions cannot  be  made  for  any  people  :  they  must 
grow  out  of  the  spirit  and  character  and  ten- 
dencies of  the  people  by  whom  they  are  adopted. 
They  are  not  a  dress  which  a  nation  wears,  but 
a  body  into  which  a  nation  grows  through  the 
development  of  its  national  life.  Political  in- 
stitutions, therefore,  for  savages  who  have  no 
national  life,  are  impossible ;  and  the  attempt  to 


52  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

change  the  political  institutions  of  a  people  al- 
ready having  a  national  history  is  idle,  unless  we 
can  first  change  the  life  of  the  people  themselves. 
Free  institutions  are  possible  wherever  they  are 
enjoyed,  because  the  people  have  become  pre- 
pared for  them  by  a  long  and  thorough  training, 
—  a  training  which  sometimes  shows  itself  in 
a  slow  growth  of  centuries.  Freedom  is  first, 
and  must  be  seen  in  a  knowledge  of  law  and  a 
reverence  for  law,  in  self-control,  and  a  capacity 
for  self-direction,  before  free  institutions  can 
have  either  permanence  or  value.  Free  institu- 
tions, which  are  the  outgrowth  and  embodiment 
of  freedom,  will  both  perpetuate  and  increase 
the  freedom  from  which  they  spring  ;  but,  when 
we  attempt  to  carry  them  over  to  a  people  not 
yet  free,  the  immediate  result  is  not  liberty,  but 
only  license  :  the  government  we  had  sought  to 
establish  becomes  anarchy  ;  and  the  anarchy, 
in  its  turn,  gives  place  to  despotism. 

Social  evil  has  its  source,  not  in  society,  but  in 
the  individual  heart,  and  cannot  be  remedied  by 


FAILURES    TO    IMPROVE   THE    WORLD.  53 

any  social  changes,  but  only  as  the  individual 
heart  is  reached  and  renovated.  The  heart 
knoweth  its  own  bitterness  ;  and,  however  per- 
fectly we  may  seek  to  furnish  a  society  with 
institutions,  if  we  have  done  nothing  more  than 
this,  it  is  only  a  surface-work.  We  have  painted 
or  plastered  over  the  ulcer  to  make  it  look  as 
though  it  were  healed ;  but  it  is  not  healed. 
It  burns  and  rages  at  the  core  just  as  virulently 
as  when  its  most  ghastly  and  revolting  features 
are  before  us.  Individual  selfishness  and  sen- 
suality are  not  altered  in  the  least  by  all  our 
efforts  at  social  reform.  "  For  from  within,  out 
of  the  heart  of  man,  proceed  evil  thoughts, 
adulteries,  fornications,  murders,  thefts,  cov- 
etousness,  wickedness,  deceit,  lasciviousness, 
an  evil  eye,  blasphemy,  pride,  foolishness."* 
Unless,  therefore,  we  can  control  this  inner 
fountain  of  corruption,  nothing  can  check  or 
change  the  quality  of  its  corrupting  streams. 
It  is  clear  enough,  as  well  from  all  history,  as 

*  Mark  vii.  21,  22. 
5* 


54  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

from  human  nature  itself,  that  the  most  potent 
of  all  forces  in  moving  men  is  some  sort  of 
religion ;  but  is  religion  able  to  do  what  every 
other  remedy  has  failed  to  accomplish  ?  Upon 
this  point  I  venture  to  re-utter  a  truth  which  I 
have  elsewhere  expressed  in  the  same  terms,  * 

There  are  two  kinds  of  religion,  and  only  two. 
The  one  begins  with  man,  and  seeks,  by  human 
endeavors,  after  a  divine  fellowship.  It  has 
various  forms,  —  Paganism  in  all  its  branches, 
Mohammedanism,  besides  various  representa- 
tives in  nominal  Christian  lands ;  but  the  one 
characteristic  in  which  they  are  all  united  is 
that  they  seek  after  God  in  some  way  which  the 
human  intellect  has  been  able  to  devise,  and  by 
some  practices  which  the  human  will  is  able  to 
perform.  The  God  whom  they  seek  may  be 
called  the  Absolute,  or  Infinite,  or  Allah,  or 
Buddha,  or  Brahm ;  he  may  be  dimly  appre- 
hended, or  worshipped  as  altogether  unknown  ; 
he  may  dwell  in  some  high  heavens  above  us,  or, 

*  Lectures  to  Educated  Hindus,  p.  23. 


FAILURES   TO    IMPROVE   THE   WORLD.  55 

as  we  are  sometimes  told,  in  some  deep  heavens 
within  :  but  whatsoever  he  may  be  called,  or 
whatsoever  he  may  be,  the  human  soul,  perhaps 
by  penance,  perhaps  by  prayer,  perhaps  by  calm 
and  rapt  contemplation,  seeks  if  haply  it  might 
feel  after  and  find  him.  In  this  point.  Paganism 
and  Pantheism  —  the  rudest  systems  of  untu- 
tored thought  and  the  refined  speculations  of 
acute  and  cultured  minds  —  meet  and  agree. 
The  spectacle  which  these  religions  furnish  is 
certainly  most  impressive.  Whatever  we  may 
say  of  the  forms  in  which  the  religious  sentiment 
has  been  exhibited,  no  one  can  smile,  none  can 
sneer,  at  the  sentiment  itself. 

But  what  have  all  these  efforts  of  man  to  find 
some  religion  accomplished  .-*  Taking  them  all 
together,  they  have  never  furnished  any  deathless 
impulse  to  society,  nor  any  undying  inspiration 
to  the  soul.  They  have  made  men  sometimes 
calm  with  a  stoical  indifference,  and  sometimes 
mute  with  a  hopeless  despair ;  but  they  have 
never  checked  nor  changed  the  tendency  of  the 


56  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

evil  they  were  designed  to  destroy;  while  the 
mysterious  instinct,  the  importunate  craving,  out 
of  which  the  religion  has  its  birth,  the  religion 
itself  is  equally  unable  to  stifle  or  to  satisfy. 

The  reason  why  all  these  natural  religions  fail 
is  quite  clear.  Human  nature  has  no  power  of 
self-renovation.  The  heart  cannot  cleanse  itself 
from  its  own  corruptions.  On  the  contrary,  its 
attempts  to  cleanse  itself  only  end  by  making 
itself  more  corrupt.  The  religions  with  which 
men  have  sought  a  fellowship  with  God  have 
only  widened  the  chasm  which  separated  from 
him.  The  religions  have  become  themselves 
the  ministers  of  sin.  "It  was  the  god  who 
tempted  me  to  it,"  says  a  wretch  in  a  play  of 
Plautus,  in  excuse  for  his  baseness ;  and  this 
illustrates  what  has  always  been  true  in  Pa- 
ganism. The  examples  and  incitements  of  the 
gods  can  be  claimed  in  support  of  any  vice  or 
crime,  however  awful  or  abominable.  Murderers, 
thieves,  adulterers,  courtesans,  pimps,  abusers 
of  themselves  with  mankind,  erect  temples  and 


FAILURES   TO    IMPROVE   THE    WORLD.  5/ 

altars,  and  solicit  the  aid  of  the  gods  in  behalf 
of  their  base  deeds.  What  ought  to  be,  and 
what  perhaps  originally  were,  the  most  sacred 
acts  of  worship,  become,  under  the  influence  of 
Paganism,  —  as  is  actually  seen  in  the  history  of 
every  great  Pagan  system,  present  or  past,  —  the 
most  gross  and  terrible  scenes  of  sensuality 
and  lust  and  violence.  The  pervigilium  of 
Venus,  the  bacchanalia  and  worship  of  Hermes 
the  cheat,  the  orgies  rendered  in  homage  of 
Astarte  and  Baal  and  Moloch  by  the  Romans 
and  Greeks  and  Western  Asiatics  of  the  ancient 
world,  are  paralleled  in  Eastern  and  Southern 
Asia  to-day.  Said  the  Abbe  Du  Bois,  a  Ro- 
man Catholic  missionary  at  Mysore,  *  "  I  have 
never  yet  beheld  a  Hindu  procession  without  its 
presenting  me  the  image  of  hell."  Said  a  mis- 
sionary who  beheld  the  festival  of  Juggernaut,* 
"  Fancy  cannot  picture,  the  imagination  cannot 
conceive,  the  abominations  of  this  worship." 
The  language  of  another,  who  was  twelve  years 

*  Arvine's  Cyclopaedia  in  loc.  Missions. 


58  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

a  missionary  in  India,  is,*  "  The  human  sacri- 
fices which  Hinduism  demands  are  frightful  and 
appalling.  The  horrid  scenes  which  have  been 
discovered  in  this  respect  are  almost  beyond 
credibility."  Notwithstanding  the  establishment 
of  the  British  Government  over  India,  the  abomi- 
nations of  Hindu  worship  are  still  sufficient  to 
fill  a  Christian  heart  with  horror.  Quite  recently, 
one  of  our  most  esteemed  missionaries  of  South- 
eastern India  assured  me  of  the  still  continued 
existence,  in  the  field  of  his  missionary  labor,  of 
orgies  practised  in  the  temples  in  the  name  of 
the  gods,  and  under  the  forms  of  worship,  whose 
abominations  could  hardly  have  been  exceeded 
b}  the  Greek  and  Roman  bacchanalia  in  their 
darkest  days.  There  is  no  power  to  renovate 
or  to  sanctify  in  any  religious  system  of  the 
unchristian  world. 

*  Arvine's  Cyclopaedia  in  loc.  Missions. 


THIRD   LECTURE. 

THE   ADEQUACY    OF   THE   GOSPEL. 

We  come  now  to  the  question,  whether  Chris- 
tianity contains  the  remedial  agency  we  need. 
Every  other  provision  we  have  seen  to  fail. 
Commerce,  civilization,  education,  political  insti- 
tutions, natural  morality,  and  natural  religion, 
when  closely  scanned,  reveal  no  power  to  check 
the  downward  tendencies  of  human  nature,  or 
lessen  the  corruption  under  which  the  world  is 
perishing.  There  is  only  one  remedy  left ;  and, 
if  this  shall  have  no  efficacy,  we  may  be  hope- 
less of  all  good.  What,  then,  does  the  gospel 
actually  propose  to  accomplish  for  the  world  ? 
and  what  is  the  probability  of  its  success  ? 

The  gospel  does  not  seek  to  save  society  di- 
rectly, and  at  the  outset.     Its  first  work  is  with 

59 


60  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

the  individual  heart.  It  comes  to  a  sinning  soul ; 
and,  however  benighted  or  degraded  that  soul 
may  be,  the  gospel  preaches  to  it  salvation  from 
sin,  salvation  from  the  power  and  the  punish- 
ment of  sin.  It  announces  itself,  first  of  all,  as 
a  divine  gift :  "  God  so  loved  the  world,  that 
he  gave  his  only-begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have 
everlasting  life."  *  Here  is  no  purchase  on  the 
part  of  man.  No  penance,  nor  prayer,  nor  sac- 
rifice, nor  rites,  nor  any  deeds  which  man  could 
do,  are   allowed   to   have   the   least   efficacy  in 

procuring  the   blessings   which   the   gospel  an- 

* 
nounces:     "Not   by    works    of     righteousness 

which    we    have   done,   but    according   to    his 

mercy,  he  saved  us."  f     This   is   the   first  and 

continued  announcement  of   the  gospel.      The 

salvation  which  it  proffers  is  absolutely  of  the 

divine  procurement,  and  is  absolutely  free :     "  I 

am  the  good  shepherd  :  the  good  shepherd  giv- 

eth  his  life  for  the  sheep.  .  .  No  man  taketh  it 

*  John  iii.  i6.  t  Tit.  iii.  5. 


THE   ADEQUACY   OF    THE    GOSPEL.  6 1 

from  me  ;  but  I  lay  it  down  of  myself.  I  have 
power  to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have  power  to  take 
it  again."  *  Such  a  doctrine,  we  should  notice, 
is  quite  peculiar.  Nothing  like  it  elsewhere 
appears.  All  other  systems  of  religion  an- 
nounce the  divine  favor  only  as  the  result  of 
human  efforts  to  obtain  it ;  and  hence  the  abun- 
dance of  penances  and  prayers,  and  deeds  of  fan- 
cied self-righteousness,  which  all  these  systems 
enjoin  as  means  to  appease  and  purchase  the 
favors  of  God.  No  one  of  all  the  unchristian 
religions  of  the  world  offers  any  divine  boon, 
except  in  return  for  a  service  which  must  first 
have  been  rendered  from  those  by  whom  the 
blessing  is  to  be  received. 

It  is  a  great  mistake,  therefore,  and  shows  a 
wonderfully  shallow  acquaintance  with  the  whole 
subject,  when  men  classify  Christianity  with 
other  systems^  and  the  Bible  with  other  books, 
as  utterances  all,  in  different  forms,  of  man's 
religious  nature.     This  is  true  of  Mohammedan- 

*  John  X.  II,  i8. 


62  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

ism,  Buddhism,  Brahminism,  of  the  Koran,  the 
Vedas,  and  so  on.  These  are  utterances,  some- 
times pathetic,  and  often  very  profound,  of  man's 
sense  of  need  and  dependence,  and  also  of  his 
striving  for  that  divine  fellowship  which  he  feels 
he  needs.  But  Christianity  is  an  utterance  to 
man  of  the  divine  fulness  ;  and  the  Bible  does 
not  so  much  declare  the  human  sense  of  want 
as  it  does  the  divine  supply.  The  difference  be- 
tween the  Christian  and  every  other  religion  is, 
therefore,  infinite,  —  a  difference  which,  however 
we  may  account  for  it,  is  yet  so  great  and  so 
clear,  that  while  we  may  properly  classify  all 
other  religions  as  expressing,  in  different  forms, 
the  one  human  yearning  and  seeking-after 
God,  Christianity  alone  possesses  the  thought,  a 
thought  which  penetrates  it  through  and  through, 
of  a  divine  yearning  and  seeking-after  man. 
"  The  Son  of  man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save 
that  which  was  lost."  * 

Note   now  the  effect   of  this   announcement 

*  Luke  xix.  lo. 


THE    ADEQUACY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  63 

upon  the  individual  heart  and  will  to  which  it 
comes.  Very  possibly,  unheard-of  doctrine  as 
it  is,  it  may  sound  at  first  as  an  idle  tale.  The 
sensuous,  selfish,  unbelieving  soul,  perhaps,  gives 
it  neither  credit  nor  concern.  "  The  god  of  this 
world  hath  blinded  the  minds  of  them  which 
believe  not,  lest  the  light  of  the  glorious  gospel 
of  Christ,  who  is  the  image  of  God,  should  shine 
unto  them."  *  It  is  not  an  easy  work  to  lead  an 
imbruted  savage,  steeped  in  superstition,  and 
sunk  in  the  lowest  depths  of  sensuality,  or  a  par- 
tially civilized  Pagan, —  sensuous  also,  and  super- 
stitious, with  an  added  pride  and  self-conceit  in 
his  own  attainments,  mingled  with  a  contempt  for 
what  others  possess,  —  to  listen  to  such  a  mes- 
sage as  the  gospel  brings.  It  requires  patience, 
great  energy,  and  great  faith.  No  wonder  that 
missionary  efforts  are  often  unsuccessful,  nor 
that  strong  resolutions  often  waver  after  years 
of  fruitless  toil.  But  let  the  effort  still  be  con- 
tinued.    Let  the  message  of  God's  love  to  man 

*  2  Cor.  iv.  10. 


64  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

be  proclaimed  unweariedly,  till  the  strange 
thought  finds  some  lodgement,  and  the  dark 
mind  begins  to  see  it,  and  the  proud  mind 
begins  to  feel  it ;  what  sort  of  a  sentiment  will 
then  begin  to  stir  the  soul  ?  For  the  first  time 
then  the  darkened  mind  gains  some  knowledge 
of  its  own  darkness.  The  darkness  cannot  dis- 
close itself.  Sin  has  no  power  of  self -revelation. 
Go  and  tell  a  man  that  he  is  a  sinner,  and  you 
cannot  thus  make  him  see  or  feel  the  fact,  how- 
ever evident  to  yourself  or  others  it  may  be. 
The  darkness  is  only  disclosed  by  the  light.  Sin 
is  only  revealed  by  the  power  of  a  holy  law.  "  I 
was  alive  without  the  law  once ;  but  when  the 
commandment  came,  sin  revived,  and  I  died."  * 
We  only  know  ourselves  through  the  knowledge 
of  God,  and  we  only  know  ourselves  as  sinful  in 
the  presence  of  his  holiness  and  love. 

Now,  let  this  thought  of  God's  mercy  to  sin- 
ners, of  God's  love  to  man,  once  be  shown  to 
men  who  have  never  known  it  before,  and  their 

*  Rom.  vii.  9. 


THE   ADEQUACY    OF   THE   GOSPEL.  65 

own  contrariety  to  this  love,  their  selfishness 
and  degradation  and  sin,  of  which  they  had  been 
equally  ignorant,  comes  up  before  them  with 
appalling  power.  As  Isaiah,  when  the  vision  of 
the  glory  of  Jehovah  came  to  him  in  the  temple, 
saw  his  own  sinfulness  in  the  light  of  the  divine 
holiness,  so  will  the  same  vision  carry  with  it 
everywhere  the  same  revealing  power ;  and  the 
man  who  possesses  it,  whoever  or  wherever  he 
may  be,  will  exclaim,  "  Woe  is  me !  for  I  am  un- 
done ;  because  I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips,  and  I 
dwell  in  the  midst  of  a  people  of  unclean  lips : 
for  mine  eyes  have  seen  the  King,  the  Lord  of 
hosts."  * 

But  the  power  of  the  revelation  does  not  end 
here.  The  knowledge  of  God,  through  which 
alone  comes  a  true  self-knowledge,  can  kindle 
with  a  living  inspiration  the  soul  to  which  its 
first  revelation  was  like  a  consuming  fire.  The 
love  which  discloses  the  soul's  selfishness  can 
banish  the  selfishness  which  it  first  disclosed, 

*  Isa.  vi.  5. 


^  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

and  bring  out  in  the  soul  the  clear  lineaments  of 
its  own  likeness,  —  the  likeness  of  love.  "  We 
love  God  because  he  first  loved  us."  * 

The  love  of  duty,  without  which  no  impulse  to 
right  conduct  is  found,  cannot  be  awakened  by 
the  duty  itself.  The  duty  will  not  be  loved  till 
it  is  seen  to  be  obedience  to  a  person  whom  we 
love.  Our  personal  wills  must  be  penetrated 
with  a  sense  of  loyalty  to  a  personal  sovereign 
whose  commands  are  righteous,  and  whose  law 
is  holy,  just,  and  good,  before  righteousness  and 
holiness  and  justice  and  goodness  can  be  the  in- 
spiration of  our  life.  But  this  is  precisely  what 
the  gospel  is  designed  to  secure.  When  its  mes- 
sage comes  to  one  sunk  in  vice  and  sin,  and 
demands  a  renovated  life,  it  bases  this  demand 
wholly  on  an  act  of  God's  unmerited  grace. 
The  gospel  does  not  require  obedience  to  some 
abstract  conception  of  duty,  as  the  doing  the 
right  for  the  right's  sake,  and  so  on.  The  obe- 
dience is  demanded  for  God's  sake,  for  Christ's 

*  I  John  iv.  19. 


THE   ADEQUACY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  6^ 

sake,  because  of  the  love  of  God.  "  I  beseech 
you,  therefore,  by  the  mercies  of  God,"  *  is  its 
constant  plea.  The  grand  motive  which  it  urges 
to  righteousness  is  the  great  gift  we  have  re- 
ceived from  a  righteous  and  loving  God.  The 
love  of  Christ  —  Christ's  love  to  us  —  is  the  con- 
straining power  by  which,  in  the  gospel,  we  are 
led  to  live,  not  unto  ourselves,  but  unto  him  who 
died  for  us,  and  rose  again.f  In  the  law  which 
urges  obedience  for  righteousness'  sake,  there  is 
a  blessing  given,  but  only  because  it  has  been 
bought.  It  comes  only  as  a  return,  a  payment  for 
the  obedience  rendered.  But  the  gospel  places 
the  other  side  foremost.  It  puts  the  blessing 
first.  Not  only  before  the  obedience,  but  in  the 
midst  of  our  disobedience,  the  blessings  of  the 
gospel  come.  "  For  God  commendeth  his  love 
towards  us  in  that,  while  we  were  yet  sinners, 
Christ  died  for  us."  % 

Now,  this  message  cannot  reach  any  man,  be 
he  savage  or  civilized,  without  a  kindling  inspi- 

*  Rom.  xii.  i.     f  2  Cor.  v.  14,  15.     %  Rom.  v.  8. 


68  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

ration.  Let  it  once  be  recognized,  let  it  but 
penetrate  the  indifference,  the  doubts,  the  pre- 
judices, which  wrap  themselves  around  the  soul, 
and  however  feeble  that  soul  may  be,  or  how- 
ever sunk  in  selfishness  and  sensuality,  this 
message  will  stir  and  lift  it  towards  a  forgetful- 
ness  of  self,  and  towards  righteousness,  with  an 
impulse  unknown  before.  "  For  the  law  of  the 
Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  made  me  free 
from  the  law  of  sin  and  death.  For  what  the 
law  could  not  do  in  that  it  was  weak  through 
the  flesh,  God,  sending  his  own  Son,  in  the 
likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  and  for  sin,  condemned 
sin  in  the  flesh  :  that  the  righteousness  of  the 
law  might  be  fulfilled  in  us,  who  walk  not  after 
the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit."  * 

This  is  what  the  gospel,  looked  at  ideally,  is 
fitted  to  secure.  This  is  its  aim,  its  method ; 
but  what  are  its  actual  fruits  ?  Is  it  only  an 
ideal  scheme  .-*  or  can  it  accomplish  what  it 
proposes  ?     The  appeal  is  properly  made  to  the 

*  Rom.  viii.  2,  3. 


THE    ADEQUACY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  69 

facts  of  history,  and  the  challenge  is  as  promptly 
accepted.  The  gospel  has  shown  itself  fitted 
to  regenerate  the  world,  in  illustration  of  which, 
—  since  it  is  well  for  us  to  remember  the  hole 
whence  we  were  digged,  —  we  may  cite,  in  the 
first  place,  the  experience  nearest  to  ourselves. 
Our  ancestors,  but  a  few  centuries  ago,  were 
sunk  in  all  the  wretchedness  and  superstition 
which  we  now  find  in  the  heathen  world.  For 
savage  ferocity  and  brutal  degradation,  they  have 
hardly  been  surpassed.  The  ancient  Britons 
were  wild  men  of  the  woods,  who  tattooed  them- 
selves, and  wore  the  skins  of  wild  beasts  ;  who 
lived  on  flesh  and  milk,  without  tilling  the 
ground;  whose  towns  were  woods,  surrounded 
by  a  mound  of  earth  and  a  ditch  ;  who  offered 
human  sacrifices  to  their  gods;  who  practised 
polygamy ;  and  who,  if  Caesar  can  be  trusted,* 
possessed  among  relations  a  community  of  wives. 
The  ancient  Scots  were  cannibals,  delighting 
in  the  taste  of  human  flesh.     When  they  hunted 

*  Bell.  Gal.,  v.  14. 


70  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

the  woods  for  prey,  it  is  said  that  they  attacked 
the  shepherd,  rather  than  his  flock  ;  and  that 
they  curiously  selected  the  most  delicate  and 
brawny  parts,  both  of  males  and  females,  for 
their  horrid  repast.*  Even  as  late  as  the  twelfth 
century,  Henry  11.  of  England  declared  to  a 
Greek  emperor,  who  had  asked  him  of  the  state 
of  Britain,  that  Wales  was  then  inhabited  by  a 
race  of  naked  warriors.f  The  ancient  Saxons 
indulged  in  human  sacrifices,  and  selected  by 
lot  one-tenth  of  their  captives  in  war  for  a 
bloody  offering  to  their  gods.  The  ancient 
Gauls  hung  the  skulls  of  their  slain  enemies 
around  the  necks  of  their  horses,  or  up  in  their 
houses,  and  used  them  as  drinking-cups  in  their 
feasts.  In  the  family  life  of  these  wild  savages, 
the  husband  possessed  the  right  of  life  or  death 
over  his  wife  and  children.  All  that  we  possess 
of  peace  and  order,  of  home  and  family  life,  all 
the  institutions  of  society  most  valuable  to  us, 
all  purity  among  us  of  individual  hearts,  and  all 

*  Gibbon,  vol.  ii.  p.  567.  t  Gibbon,  vol.  iii.  p.  629 


THE    ADEQUACY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  /I 

progress  towards  a  better  state,  is  no  original 
inheritance.  It  comes  from  no  development  of 
native  tendencies,  but  is  a  fruit  borne  by  a  new 
life  with  which  these  ancient  savages  became 
enkindled. 

That  this  new  life  was  not  begotten  by  the 
Greek  or  Roman  civilization  with  which  the 
Britons  and  Germans  and  Gauls  came  in  con 
tact,  is  clear  from  what  we  have  already  seen  of 
the  moral  condition  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
world.  Though  possessing  governments  and 
arts,  and  social  institutions,  which  gave  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  order,  and  a  large  degree  of 
elegance,  to  their  outward  life,  the  Greeks  and 
Romans,  we  have  already  seen,  were  sunk  in  the 
depths  of  a  selfishness  and  sensuaHty  and  lust, 
from  which  no  renovating  impulse  could  spring. 
They  needed  themselves  first  of  all  to  be  re- 
newed. Neither  could  the  genius  for  art,  for 
speculation,  for  law,  which  penetrated  the  Greek 
and  Roman  world  in  the  palmy  days  of  their 
civilization,  reproduce   itself.      When  Rome,  in 


72  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

the  time  of  the  Caesars,  came  in  contact  with 
the  barbarians  of  Northern  and  Central  Europe, 
this  genius  was  already  expiring.  It  had  done 
its  work.  It  had  borne  its  fruits.  It  had  ex- 
hausted itself.  It  had  no  power  of  reproduc- 
tion. Few  pages  of  history  are  more  instruc- 
tive to  the  historical  student  than  the  condition 
of  the  world  just  prior  to  the  dawn  of  the  day 
we  now  enjoy.  For  this  dawn,  there  is  no  har- 
binger in  the  existing  state  of  things.  The 
deepening  darkness  gives  no  promise  of  the 
day.  To  change  the  corruptions  of  society,  to 
renovate  individual  hearts,  to  drive  out  the 
darkness,  and  bring  in  the  light  and  life  of  a 
new  day,  there  needs  the  rising  of  a  new  sun 
with  healing  in  his  beams.  The  beneficent 
changes  which  have  occurred  in  Europe,  the 
beneficent  influencv'^s  which  we  now  enjoy,  in 
distinction  from  those  of  our  ancestors  fifteen 
centuries  ago,  I  believe  no  careful  student  can 
ascribe  to  any  cause  separate  from  the  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel  of  Christ.     The  most  careful 


THE   ADEQUACY    OF   THE   GOSPEL.  73 

and  profound  students  of  history  do  ascribe 
them  to  this.  That  our  present  condition,  with 
its  incalculable  blessings,  is  no  development 
from  original  forces  in  our  natural  endowment, 
is  still  further  evident  from  the  fact  that  the 
power  of  the  gospel  is  sufficient  to  produce  the 
same  results  among  people  of  the  most  diverse 
endowment. 

The  current  scepticism,  that  Christianity  is  a 
Shemitic  religion,  confined  to  certain  races,  to 
which  it  properly  belongs,  while  it  is  only  a 
delusion  to  suppose  that  it  fits  all  races,  in 
every  stage  of  their  development,  is  sufficiently 
answered  in  the  actual  facts  of  the  case.  Chris- 
tianity has  found  its  triumphs,  and  shown  its 
fruits,  in  every  nation  and  tribe  upon  the  globe ; 
and  its  results  have  been,  in  every  case,  the 
same.  Virtue,  social  order,  prosperity,  blessed- 
ness, the  elevation  and  improvement,  in  all  re- 
spects, of  the  human  life,  are  the  uniform  and 
exclusive  inheritance  of  those  who  receive  the 
gospel.       The    North-American    Indians,    who 


74  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

have  successfully  resisted  all  other  efforts  to 
civilize  them,  and  who  are  thought  by  many  to 
be  savages  so  irreclaimable  that  they  must  be 
exterminated  before  we  can  have  peace  on  our 
western  borders,  have  been,  in  many  instances, 
changed,  and  have  lost  their  savage  state,  simply 
through  no  other  agency  than  the  preaching  of 
the  gospel.  In  1862  a  savage  attempt  at  the 
extermination  of  the  whites  was  made  by  the 
Pagan  Dacotahs,  beginning  with  a  general  mas- 
sacre of  the  settlers  who  had  encroached  upon 
the  Indians'  hunting-grounds.  A  fierce  war 
ensued,  after  which  two  thousand  Indians,  hav- 
ing been  captured,  were  tried  by  a  military  com- 
mission, and  three  hundred  were  sentenced  to 
death,  of  whom  the  larger  part  were  subse- 
quently set  at  liberty  through  the  intervention 
of  President  Lincoln.  To  these  miserable  cap- 
tives, Christian  missionaries  found  access  ;  and 
the  gospel  was  preached  with  the  most  blessed 
effects.  Within  three  years,  more  than  five  hun- 
dred   Dacotahs    (a   number    since    largely    in- 


THE    ADEQUACY    OF   THE    GOSPEL.  75 

creased)  professed  their  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  — ■ 
a  faith  to  which  the  fruits  of  a  regenerated 
life  are  still  bearing  undoubted  testimony.* 

At  the  meeting  of  the  American  Board  at 
Minneapolis,  in  1873,  where,  eleven  years  before, 
there  was  an  Indian  massacre,  some  of  the  very 
men  engaged  in  the  massacre  were  present  as 
Christian  believers,  —  no  longer  blood-thirsty 
and  cruel,  but  meek  and  gentle  and  loving, 
with  a  demeanor  and  spirit  declaring  again  the 
oft-told  story :  "  If  any  man  be  in  Christ,  he 
is  a  new  creature  :  old  things  are  passed  away  ; 
behold,  all  things  are  become  new."  f  O jib- 
ways  and  Dacotahs,  tribes  between  whom  burnt 
such  an  enmity,  that,  in  their  savage  state,  no 
two  could  ever  meet  in  peace,  now  sat  in  Chris- 
tian fellowship  and  brotherly  love  at  Christ's 
communion  table;  and,  as  the  venerable  presi- 
dent of  the  Board  remarked  at  the  time,  what 
seemed  equally  wonderful,  the  people  of  Minne- 

*  Anderson's  Lectures  on  Poreign  Missions,  p.  221. 
t  2  Cor.  V.   17. 


76  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

sota  sat  with  them,  all  together  fellow-members  of 
one  Church,  and  fellow-disciples  of  one  Lord. 

The  Annual  Report  of  the  American  Board  for 
that  same  year  notices  *  "  with  great  satisfaction 
the  fraternal  interest  that  exists  between  the  Da- 
cotah  churches  and  the  home-mission  churches 
on  the  border.  It  gives  the  native  brethren  new 
strength  and  confidence  on  the  one  hand,  and  it 
inspires  their  white  brethren  with  a  stronger 
faith  in  the  power  of  the  gospel."  "  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  belief  of  any  home-mission- 
aries in  this  territory  before  coming  here," 
writes  Rev.  Joseph  Ward  to  the  "  Home  Mis- 
sionary Magazine,"  "no  one  of  these  believes 
that  the  Indian  is  to  be  exterminated,  either  by 
the  hand  of  man,  or  the  judgments  of  God. 
We  expect  they  will  remain  among  us,  and  in- 
crease, rather  than  diminish.  Neither  are  we 
displeased  at  the  prospect ;  for,  in  looking  over 
the  ground,  we  see  plainly  enough  many  good 
influences  coming  from  them,  and  helping  us  in 
*P.  84. 


THE   ADEQUACY   OF   THE    GOSPEL.  // 

our  work.  Their  example  as  Christian  workers 
is  a  good  one.  The  love  and  good  works,  espe- 
cially from  such  a  source,  provoke  to  an  in- 
crease of  the  same  among  us.  The  restraining 
influence  of  these  Christianized  Indians  on  evil 
white  men  is  very  great.  Without  the  work 
done  by  these  Indian  churches,  our  border  popu- 
lation would  have  an  unlimited  field  for  licen- 
tiousness and  intemperance.  Now  there  is  a 
noticeable  restraint,  making  the  work  of  the 
home-missionary  far  easier.  The  good  done 
in  this  way  is  increasing  each  year,  as  the 
work  among  the  Indians  is  carried  farther  along, 
and  even  beyond  the  frontier.  The  sense  of 
security  is  increased.  The  Christian  Indians 
are  a  protection  far  more  effective  than  any  num- 
ber of  troops.  No  hostile  bands  could  by  any 
possibility  get  through  this  cordon  of  Christian 
fortresses  before  the  alarm  was  given.  The  fact 
that  there  is  this  barrier  in  the  way  prevents  all 
attempts  ;  and  so  we  till  our  farms,  and  sleep, 
without  a  thought  of  fear." 


y8  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

The  Sandwich- Islanders  and  the  South-Sea- 
Islanders,  who,  fifty  years  ago,  were  savages  and 
cannibals  of  the  wildest,  lowest,  and  most  de- 
graded sort,  and  who,  to  the  human  eye,  gave 
absolutely  no  hope  of  improvement,  or  prospect 
of  any  good,  have,  within  less  than  half  a  centu- 
ry, been  changed  into  peaceful  and  virtuous  and 
industrious  people,  with  homes  and  schools  and 
laws.  This  change  has  been  wrought  only 
through  the  preaching,  by  Christian  missionaries, 
of  the  gospel  of  Christ.  So  obviously  has  the 
work  been  done  by  this  agency  alone,  that,  so 
far  as  I  know,  no  attempt  is  ever  made  to  claim 
it  for  any  other.  There  are  those  who  deprecia- 
ate  the  value,  and  deny  the  extent,  of  the  changes 
themselves ;  but  this  number  steadily  dimin- 
ishes before  the  overwhelming  proof  to  the  con- 
trary ;  and  the  great  fact  of  these  stupendous 
changes,  and  their  simple  cause,  demands  the 
attention  and  the  assent  of  the  world. 

In  1820  the  first  Christian  missionaries  landed 
in   the    Sandwich   Islands ;   and   in   1870  they 


THE    ADEQUACY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  79 

made  their  last  report  to  the  society  and  the 
churches  which  had  sent  them  out ;  the  islands 
having  ceased  to  be  missionary  ground,  the 
inhabitants  having  ceased  to  be  heathen,  and 
having  become  a  Christian  people,  with  self-sus- 
taining churches  and  pastors  of  their  own,  and 
having  become,  also,  a  new  centre  of  light, 
whence  the  beams  of  the  gospel  are  carried  to 
distant  islands  still  in  darkness.  The  Sand- 
wich Islands,  which  fifty  years  ago  knew  noth- 
ing of  the  gospel,  now  send  out  and  support 
thirteen  of  their  own  natives  as  missionaries  of 
the  gospel  to  the  Marquesas  and  Micronesian 
Islands.  "  Having  myself,"  says  the  venerable 
Dr.  Anderson,  "  traversed  all  the  Sandwich 
Islands  five  years  ago,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  de- 
clare the  United  States  to  be  no  more  entitled, 
as  a  whole,  to  the  epithet  of  Christian  than  are 
those  islands."  *  "  At  the  fiftieth  anniversary 
of  the  establishment  of  missions  to  the  Hawaiian 
Islands,  the  principal  orator  was  a  man  who  in 
*  Foreign  Missions,  p.  225, 


80  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

infancy  had  narrowly  escaped  death  by  being 
buried  alive  by  his  heathen  mother.  For  an 
hour  he  held  his  audience  in  rapt  attention,  as, 
without  a  note  before  him,  he  rehearsed  the  tri- 
umphs of  the  gospel  among  his  people ;  the  ora- 
tor himself,  by  his  range  of  thought,  his  finished 
language,  his  graceful  manner,  his  lofty  Chris- 
tian sentiment,  furnishing,  in  his  own  individual 
development,  the  finest  illustration  of  his 
theme."  * 

In  1866  the  Report  of  the  London  Missionary 
Society  contained  the  following  declaration : 
"  Sixty  years  ago  there  was  not  a  solitary  native 
Christian  in  Polynesia :  now  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find  a  professed  idolater  in  the  islands  of 
Eastern  or  Central  Polynesia,  where  Christian 
missionaries  have  been  established.  The  hideous 
rites  of  their  forefathers  have  ceased  to  be  prac- 
tised. Their  heathen  legends  and  war-songs  are 
forgotten.      Their   cruel   and   desolating   tribal 

*  Rev.  Dr.  N.  G.  Clark's  paper  on  the  Developing  Power 
sf  the  Gospel 


THE   ADEQUACY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  8 1 

wars,  which  were  rapidly  destroying  the  popula- 
tion, appear  to  be  at  an  end.  They  are  gathered 
together  in  peaceful  village  communities.  They 
live  under  recognized  codes  of  laws.  They  are 
constructing  roads,  cultivating  their  fertile  lands, 
and  engaging  in  commerce.  On  the  return  of 
the  sabbath,  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  popu- 
lation attend  the  worship  of  God ;  and,  in  some 
instances,  more  than  half  the  adult  population 
are  recognized  members  of  Christian  churches. 
They  educate  their  children,  endeavoring  to 
train  them  for  usefulness  in  after-life.  They 
sustain  their  native  ministers,  and  send  their 
noblest  sons  as  missionaries  to  the  heathen 
lands  which  lie  farther  west.  There  may  not  be 
the  culture,  the  wealth,  the  refinement,  of  the 
older  lands  of  Christendom  (such  things  are 
the  slow  growth  of  ages)  ;  but  these  lands  must 
no  longer  be  regarded  as  a  part  of  heathendom. 
In  God's  faithfulness  and  mercy,  they  have  been 
won  from  the  domains  of  heathendom,  and  have 
been  added  to  the  domains  of  Christendom."  * 

*  Quoted  in  Anderson's  Foreign  Missions,  p.  227. 


82  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

In  the  Fiji  Islands,  numbering  a  population 
of  two  hundred  thousand,  the  Wesley  an  mission- 
aries began  their  work  in  1835.  The  people  were 
then  all  cannibals.  Now  *  nearly  a  hundred  and 
forty  thousand  regularly  attend  church  on  the 
sabbath.  There  are  25,468  church-members  in 
full  communion,  and  4,450  on  probation.  There 
are  946  native  preachers.  There  are  1,282  day 
schools,  attended  by  45,792  children.  The 
barbarities,  the  crimes,  the  vices,  of  their  heath- 
enism, have  changed  to  an  equal  degree.  "  An 
English  naval  officer,  speaking  lately  of  a  reli- 
gious service  he  attended  on  one  of  these  islands, 
says,  '  I  was  very  much  impressed  by  the  scene 
before  me.  Only  fifteen  years  before,  every  man 
I  saw  was  a  cannibal.  Close  to  me  sat  the  old 
chief,  Bible  in  hand,  and  spectacles  on  forehead, 
who  was,  twenty  years  back,  one  of  the  most  san- 
guinary and  ferocious  of  this  terrible  land  ;  and 
within  twenty  yards  of  me  was  the  site  of  the 
fatal  oven,  with  the  tree  still  standing,  covered 

*  Wesleyan  Miss.  Rep.,  1874. 


THE    ADEQUACY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  83 

with  the  notches  that  marked  each  new  vic- 
tim.'"* 

If  we  find  difficulties  in  estimating  the  full 
magnitude  of  this  change,  we  need  only  to  pass 
to  islands  still  farther  to  the  south-west,  where 
Christian  missions  have  not  yet  penetrated, 
where  the  natives  still  devour  one  another,  and 
the  darkness  of  unbroken  heathenism  still  waits 
for  the  light  of  the  gospel  to  drive  it  away. 

Christian  missions  began  in  Madagascar  in 
1820.  The  then  reigning  king  welcomed  them  ; 
but  upon  his  death,  eight  years  after,  his  Pagan 
queen,  who  succeeded  him,  began  a  bitter  oppo- 
sition to  them  and  their  work,  which  grew  to  the 
most  ferocious  persecution.  Every  missionary 
was  driven  out  of  the  land,  and  the  attempt  made 
to  put  every  Christian  convert  to  death.  Bar- 
barities and  tortures,  the  like  of  which  modern 
history  does  not  elsewhere  reveal,  were  employed 
in  the  work  of  extermination.  The  native  Chris- 
tians were  fined  and  imprisoned,  and  loaded  with 

*  Dr.  Anderson,  p.  229. 


84  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

chains,  and  sold  into  slavery.  They  were  poi- 
soned and  stoned  and  speared  to  death.  They 
were  hanged  and  burned  at  the  stake,  and  cruci- 
fied, and  pitched  over  lofty  precipices ;  but  the 
blood  of  the  martyrs  here,  as  in  Tertullian's 
time,  was  the  seed  of  the  church.  Through  all 
the  fiery  storm,  the  word  of  God  grew  mightily, 
and  prevailed.  Though  hardly  fifty  native 
Christians  were  found  in  the  island  when  the 
persecution  began,  and  though  it  is  estimated 
that  over  two  thousand  suffered  martyrdom  for 
their  faith  during  its  continuance,  yet  at  its  close, 
twenty-five  years  afterv/ards,  five  thousand 
Christian  disciples  were  found  ready,  if  need  be, 
to  seal  with  their  life  their  faith  in  their  Lord. 
Since  1 86 1,  when  the  fierce  queen  died,  and  the 
persecution  ceased,  the  missionaries  have  re- 
turned ;  Christian  preaching  has  not  only  been 
permitted,  but  is  welcomed,  by  the  government ; 
and  there  are  now  more  than  twenty  five  hundred 
native  preachers  of  .the  gospel,  and  forty  thou- 
sand communicants  in  Christian  churches,  in 
Madagascar. 


THE   ADEQUACY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  85 

To  all  these  might  be  added  copious  instances 
from  Sierra  Leone,  from  the  Zulus  and  Caifres 
and  Karens,  from  the  Sonthals  and  other  abo- 
riginal tribes  of  India,  to  show  the  actual  power 
of  the  gospel  to  elevate  and  transform  the  lowest 
and  most  degraded  of  human  kind.  Before  our 
own  eyes  at  the  present  day,  if  we  only  will  but 
see,  there  is  actually  taking  place  such  a  trans- 
formation in  the  character  and  condition  of  wild 
and  savage  men,  by  the  preaching  of  the  gospel 
alone,  which  justifies  its  claim  to  be  the  all- 
sufficient  remedy  for  human  sin  and  woe.  What 
neither  commerce,  nor  the  arts  of  civilization, 
nor  education,  nor  the  teaching  of  morality,  nor 
systems  of  natural  religion,  singly  or  combined, 
have  been  able  to  accomplish,  the  gospel  alone 
is  showing  itself  sufficient  to  secure  ;  and  com- 
merce and  arts  and  education  and  virtue  follow 
in  its  train,  as  the  day  from  the  rising  of  the 
sun.  It  does  not  increase  our  sense  of  the  can- 
dor or  the  clear  knowledge  of  those,  who,  in  the 
face  of  facts  like  these,  can  doubt  the  power  of 

8 


86  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

the  gospel,  or  ignore  the  blessings  of  Christian 
missions. 

But  it  may  be  said,  that  the  results  thus  far 
noted  have  been  wrought  upon  savages  ;  and  it 
does  not  yet  appear  that  the  gospel  is  equally 
adapted  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  more 
advanced  and  partially-civilized,  though  still 
Pagan,  nations  of  the  globe.  If  it  be  granted 
that  cannibals  and  savages  can  be  brought  to  a 
state  of  peace  and  social  order  by  the  gospel,  is 
it  equally  true  that  no  other  agency  is  necessary 
to  reach  those  who  already  occupy  a  plane  of 
considerable  culture,  with  commerce  and  arts 
and  laws  already  possessed,  but  who  are  still 
idolaters,  and  still  sunk  in  the  sensuality  and 
moral  corruption  of  the  heathen  .?  Has  the  gos- 
pel any  thing  like  such  power  with  the  Japanese 
and  Chinese  and  Hindus,  as  it  has  shown  over 
Nortl:  American  Indians  and  the  savage  island- 
ers of  the  Pacific,  and  the  wild  and  degraded 
denizens  of  Africa  and  Madagascar } 

The  earliest  triumphs  of  the  gospel  were  not 


THE   ADEQUACY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  87 

over  barbarians.  Christianity  was  brought  face 
to  face,  at  the  outset,  with  Greek  and  Roman 
civilization  and  culture.  It  achieved  its  first 
victories  in  the  high  places  of  refinement,  in 
cities  and  schools.  Those  who  did  not  at  first 
receive  it  were  those  who  did  not  live  in  cities, 
who  were  outside  the  circles  of  culture,  the 
rude  dwellers  on  the  heath  and  in  hamlets, 
whom  our  words  "heathen"  and  "pagan"  origi- 
nally and  literally  described.  It  is  true  these 
victories  were  not  won  without  a  struggle ;  but 
they  were  won.  Christianity  fearlessly  entered 
upon  the  struggle,  and  fought  it  out  until  the 
learning  and  art  and  culture  and  civilization, 
which  were  all  arrayed  in  hostility  to  it,  were 
subdued,  and  henceforth  made  to  minister  to  its 
progress.  There  is  no  reason  to  expect  any  dif- 
ferent results  at  the  present  day ;  neither  are 
the  results  different.  The  civilization  of  the 
Japanese,  the  Chinese,  and  the  Hindus,  is  far 
mferior  to  that  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  world ; 
but  Christianity  is   actually  showing   itself   as 


88  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

able  to  change  and  control  the  one,  as  it  was  the 
other.  "  I  believe,"  said  Lord  Lawrence,  vice- 
roy of  India,  "  notwithstanding  all  that  the  Eng- 
lish people  have  done  to  benefit  that  country, 
the  missionaries  have  done  more  than  all  other 
agencies  combined."  Says  Sir  Bartle  Fr^re,  gov- 
ernor of  Bombay,  "  I  speak  simply  as  to  matters 
of  experience  and  observation,  and  not  of 
opinion,  just  as  a  Roman  prefect  might  have 
reported  to  Trajan  or  the  Antonines ;  and  I 
assure  you,  that,  whatever  you  may  be  told  to 
the  contrary,  the  teaching  of  Christianity  among 
a  hundred  and  sixty  millions  of  civilized,  indus- 
trious Hindus  and  Mohammedans  in  India, 
is  effecting  changes,  moral,  social,  and  political, 
which,  for  extent  and  rapidity  of  effect,  are  far 
more  extraordinary  than  any  thing  you  or  your 
fathers  have  witnessed  in  modern  Europe." 
Says  Sir  Donald  McLeod,  lieutenant-governor 
of  the  Punjaub,  '*  In  many  places  an  impression 
prevails,  that  the  missions  have  not  produced 
results  adequate  to  the  efforts  which  have  been 


THE   ADEQUACY    OF   THE    GOSPEL.  89 

made;  but  I  trust  enough  has  been  said  to 
prove  that  there  is  no  real  foundation  for  this 
impression,  and  those  who  hold  such  opinions 
know  but  little  of  the  reality." 

In  the  closing  week  of  1872,  a  missionary 
conference  was  held  at  Allahabad,  India,  com- 
posed of  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  members, 
—  Baptists,  Congregationalists,  Episcopalians, 
Lutherans,  Methodists,  Presbyterians,  and  Re- 
formed, from  America,  England,  Scotland,  Ire- 
land, Germany,  Norway,  and  India,  —  in  which 
the  present  condition  and  prospects  of  mission- 
ary work  in  India  were  carefully  considered.  I 
was  told  by  a  member  of  the  conference,  that, 
when  the  reports  from  the  different  societies 
and  missions  were  brought  in,  a  sentiment  of 
surprise  was  blended  with  the  thanksgiving  at 
the  results  wrought.  No  one  seems  to  have 
been  prepared  for  the  exhibition  of  the  grand 
extent  and  power  of  missionary  work  in  India. 
In  1862  there  were  138,731  native  Christians 
in  the  whole   of   India.      In    1872   there   were 


90  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

224,161,  an  increase  of  over  eighty-five  thou- 
sand in  ten  years,  or  at  the  rate  of  sixty-one 
per  cent.  This  is  not  only  a  larger  absolute 
gain,  but  larger,  also,  proportionally,  showing  a 
more  rapid  growth  in  missionary  operations 
and  their  results,  during  the  last  ten  years,  than 
at  any  similar  period  before.  While  the  largest 
portion  of  this  increase  is  from  persons  of  low 
caste,  and  from  the  aboriginal  tribes,  one-fourth 
of  it,  or  more  than  twenty  thousand  of  the  con- 
verts during  the  last  ten  years,  are  from  pure 
Hindus  of  high  caste. 

Besides  these  direct  results,  every  thoughtful 
observer  agrees  that  the  influence  of  Christian 
missions  has  indisputably  changed  the  opinions 
and  conduct  of  the  natives  of  India,  both  edu- 
cated and  uneducated,  to  a  degree  most  remarka- 
ble, and  which  gives  promise  of  consequences 
equally  grand  and  benign.  Rev.  M.  A.  Sher- 
ring  of  Benares,  in  a  carefully-prepared  paper 
read  before  the  Allahabad  Conference,  full  of 
accurate  information  of  the  present  state  and 


THE   ADEQUACY    OF   THE    GOSPEL.  9 1 

prospects  of  missionary  work  in  India,  declares 
that  "there  are  great  processes  of  change  and 
reformation,  which  are  secretly  undermining  the 
vast  fabric  of  Hindu  superstition,  and  which 
alone,  were  there  no  others,  and  were  there 
not  a  single  Hindu  yet  converted  to  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  would  stamp  the  great  humanizing 
work  in  which  the  missionaries  are  engaged, 
as  one  of  the  most  noble  and  beneficent  the 
world  ever  saw."  * 

It  is  only  a  very  few  years  since  China  was 
opened  to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel ;  but 
Christian  missions  have  been  established  in 
forty  walled  cities,  and  three  hundred  and  sixty 
villages ;  over  four  hundred  native  preachers 
have  been  raised  up;  and  while,  in  1868,  there 
were  four  thousand  Chinese  members  of  Chris- 
tian churches,  this  number  has  grov/n,  in  1873, 
to  eight  thousand,  a  rate  of  increase  which  the 
latest  intelligence  from  China  gives  promise  of 
still  further  augmenting. 

*  Proceedings  of  the  Allahabad  Conference,  p.  4S0. 


92  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

In  Japan  the  commencement  of  missions  has 
been  still  more  recent,  but  their  progress  has 
not  been  slow  ;  and  no  one  can  note  the  interest 
of  the  Japanese  in  the  gospel,  and  the  changed 
condition  and  life  of  those  who  have  found  in  it 
the  way  of  salvation,  without  the  strongest  ex- 
pectation, that  it  will  not  only  be  preached 
through  the  whole  empire,  but  that  it  will  be 
found  there,  as  everywhere,  glad  tidings  of  great 
joy. 

The  gospel  has  not  died  out,  nor  lost  aught 
of  its  power.  Through  the  eighteen  Christian 
centuries  in  which  it  has  been  preached,  it 
has  not  grown  old,  nor  weak,  nor  weary.  It 
is  working  to-day,  in  Christian  and  unchristian 
lands,  with  as  much  vigor,  and  with  as  mighty 
results,  as  in  the  great  days  of  its  first  proc- 
lamation. The  triumphs  actually  achieved  in 
our  own  time  by  the  Christian  Church  are 
equal  to  any  the  Church  has  ever  achieved. 
Christianity  places  herself  side  by  side  with 
all    other  agencies  for  the    salvation    of    the 


THE    ADEQUACY    OF   THE    GOSPEL.  93 

world,  and  calmly  challenges  a  comparison  of 
their  success  with  her  own.  By  the  light  of 
the  actual  results,  it  becomes  clear  that  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  "  is  the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation ;  unto  the  Jew  hrst,  ana  also  unto 
the  Greek."* 

♦  Rom.  L  id 


FOURTH   LECTURE. 

THE   MILLENNARIAN   THEORY   OF   MISSIONS. 

Just  at  this  point  a  difficulty  arises,  which 
some  minds  feel  to  be  grave.  If  we  can  answer 
all  the  objections  to  missions  which  an  unbe- 
liever can  urge,  and  sufficiently  demonstrate  the 
power  of  the  gospel  and  the  glory  of  the  gospel, 
in  contrast  with  all  other  agencies,  for  the  good 
of  man,  which  it  is  in  our  power  to  use,  there 
are  still  many  profound  Christian  believers  who 
doubt  the  expediency  and  the  efficiency  of  mis- 
sions, on  the  ground  that  these  are  man's  work, 
while  the  work  of  the  world's  conversion  must 
be  wholly  divine.  They  argue  from  prophecy 
that  as  the  stone  which  smote  the  image,  and 
became  a  great  mountain,  and  filled  the  whole 
earth,  was  cut  out  of  the  mountain  without  hands, 

94 


THE    MILLENNARIAN   THEORY   OF    MISSIONS.      95 

SO  the  kingdom  which  shall  break  in  pieces  and 
consume  all  other  kingdoms,  and  shall  never  be 
destroyed,  but  shall  stand  forever,  must  be  one 
which  the  God  of  heaven  alone  must  set  up.  * 
The  Church  which  hopes  to  bring  about  the 
victory  of  her  Lord's  kingdom  upon  earth  by 
her  own  endeavors  will  not  only  fail  of  such  a 
consummation,  which  is  beyond  all  her  powers, 
but  assuredly  loses  thus  her  own  strength  and 
salvation.  "  For  thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  the 
Holy  One  of  Israel :  In  returning  and  rest  shall 
ye  be  saved ;  in  quietness  and  confidence  shall 
be  your  strength."!  We  are  pointed  to  prophe- 
cies which  seem  to  assure  us  that  it  is  the  suf- 
fering Church  which  is  to  reign.  It  is  the  eye 
that  has  watched,  and  the  soul  that  has  waited, 
for  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  which  shall  see 
"  death  swallowed  up  in  victory,"  and  which 
shall  exclaim,  "  Lo,  this  is  our  God ;  we  have 
waited  for  him,  and  he  will  save  us  :  this  is  the 
Lord  ;  we  have  waited  for  him,  we  will  be  glad 
and  rejoice  in  his  salvation."  J 

*   T^r.n.  ii.  t  Tsn    xw.  t  ;.  t  Ts.i.  vxv.  9, 


96  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

Therefore,  it  is  argued,  "Our  strength  is  to 
sit  still."  We  are  not  to  work,  but  to  wait  for 
the  Lord's  coming.  All  our  work  is  worthless. 
His  advent  alone  can  bring  the  wished-for  good. 
This  will  be  in  his  own  good  time,  which  we 
cannot  hasten ;  and  it  will  be  with  the  glory  of 
his  all-sufficient  power,  which  none  of  our 
efforts  can  increase.  He  will  come  with  the 
power  of  a  conqueror,  and  the  terribleness  of  a 
destroyer,  bringing  vengeance  and  recompense 
to  his  enemies.  The  nations  are  to  be  dashed  to 
pieces  by  him,  like  a  potter's  vessel.  "  He  shall 
break  them  with  a  rod  of  iron."  *  "A  fire  shall 
devour  before  him,  and  it  shall  be  very  tempest- 
uous round  about  him."  f  "  And  the  loftiness 
of  man  shall  be  bowed  down,  and  the  haughti- 
ness of  men  shall  be  made  low ;  and  the  Lord 
alone  shall  be  exalted  in  that  day.  And  they 
shal.  go  into  the  holes  of  the  rocks,  and  into  the 
caves  of  the  earth,  for  fear  of  the  Lord,  and  for 
the  glory  of  his  majesty,  when  he  ariseth  to 
*  Ps.  ii.  9.  t  Vs.  1.  3. 


THE    MILLENNARIAN    THEORY    OF    MISSIONS.      97 

shake  terribly  the  earth."  "  Strengthen  ye  the 
weak  hands,  and  confirm  the  feeble  knees.  Say 
to  them  that  are  of  a  fearful  heart,  Be  strong, 
fear  not ;  behold,  your  God  will  come  with  ven- 
geance, even  God  with  a  recompense,  he  will 
come  and  save  you.  Then  the  eyes  of  the  blind 
shall  be  opened,  and  the  of  ears  the  deaf  shall 
be  unstopped.  Then  shall  the  lame  man  leap  as 
an  hart,  and  the  tongue  of  the  dumb  shall  sing  ; 
for  in  the  wilderness  shall  waters  break  out,  and 
streams  in  the  desert.  .  .  .  Then  shall  the  ran- 
somed of  the  Lord  return,  and  come  to  Zion 
with  songs  and  everlasting  joy  upon  their  heads: 
they  shall  obtain  joy  and  gladness,  and  sorrow 
and  sighing  shall  flee  away."  * 

All  this  is  interpreted  to  mean,  that  we  are  not 
to  hope  for  the  conversion  of  the  world  from  any 
increase  of  our  present  means  of  evangelizing 
the  nations,  nor,  indeed,  from  any  exercise  of 
human  means  at  all,  but  only  "  by  a  stupendous 
display  of  divine  wrath  upon  all  the  apostate 

*  Isa.  XXXV. 


98  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

and  ungodly."  *  "  The  kingdom  and  Universal 
Church  are  to  be  established,  not  by  gradual  con- 
version or  by  conversion  more  or  less  rapid  under 
this  dispensation,  but  by  the  personal  advent  of 
our  Lord  himself  and  all  the  remarkable  events 
ihat  accompany  it."  f  "The  rectifying  that 
comes  at  last  is  not  by  mercy,  but  by  judgment ; 
not  by  the  sowing  of  grace,  but  by  the  sickle  of 
vengeance ;  not  by  an  extension  of  the  gospel, 
the  labors  of  ministers,  or  any  gracious  instru- 
mentahty  now  at  work,  but  by  the  angels  of  God, 
who  are  to  accompany  the  Son  of  man  at  his 
second  advent.  It  will  consist  not  in  re-sowine:. 
but  in  reaping,  the  field."  J 

Of  course,  from  all  this  it  follows  that  mis- 
cionary  movements  are  a  mistake,  and  ought  to 
be  abandoned.  And  this  ground  is  actually  and 
soberly  taken.  Recall  your  missionaries  Give 
up  all  these  human  agencies.     "  Ti.is  is  n  y  v!f4* 

*  Elem.  of  Prcph.  Ii\te.- ,  p.  .12C 

t  O^nhT'i?  l-Vcii.-Uiv-nu'ai  A.vVcni,  p.  -^i^ , 

t  McNfilv's  :^rkst  np^^n  Vu  ISr^e,  p.  .76^ 


THE    MILLENNARIAN    THEORY    OF    MISSIONS.      99 

dispensation  for  converting  the  world.  Nothing 
permanent  will  be  done  till  the  King  come  him- 
self." "  To  encourage  the  hope  that  the  gospel, 
as  now  proclaimed  in  the  world,  will  be  the 
instrument  of  final  success,  is  simply  to  feed 
the  Church  upon  unauthorized  speculations." 
"The  world  is  not  growing  better,  but  worse, 
under  all  human  efforts.  The  darkness  around 
us  is  not  being  pierced  by  the  light,  but  is  grow- 
ing more  dense  and  appalling ;  and  this  state  of 
things  will  continue  on  to  the  end.  The  king- 
dom of  Christ  is  to  be  firmly  established  only 
at  his  second  coming.  The  coming  of  the  Lord 
in  all  his  glory,  and  the  setting-up  of  his 
kingdom,  are  to  be  contemporaneous.  When 
the  comparatively  small  number  of  the  elect 
shall  have  been  gathered  in  under  this  dispensa- 
tion, then  is  the  sign  to  appear  in  the  heavens  ; 
and  the  power  of  Christ  in  a  new  moral  system 
is  to  complete  what  his  grace  has  failed  to 
accomplish  in  this." 

This,  if  I  understand  it,  is  a  fair  statement  of 


100  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

the  millennarian  theory  of  missions  and  the  con- 
version of  the  world  ;  and  I  have  given  it  this 
full  representation,  because  of  the  prominence 
with  which,  in  certain  quarters,  it  is  now  held. 
So  startling  a  position,  so  gravely  taken  by  such 
careful  students  and  devout  believers  of  the 
Bible,  needs  our  close  attention.  Do  the  sacred 
Scriptures  warrant  any  such  conclusion  ?  Are 
we,  on  a  fair  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  to  stop 
short  in  our  missionary  enterprise,  and  confess 
our  mistake  ?  or  do  the  Scriptures  urge  us  for- 
ward in  the  work  of  preaching  the  gospel  to  the 
nations  ^  and  do  they  encourage  the  hope  of  the 
world's  conversion  in  this  way  .'* 

This  much  is  clear  at  the  outset,  and  is  every- 
where admitted  to  be  the  teaching  of  Scripture, 
—  the  present  corruption  and  alienation  of  men 
from  God  is  to  cease ;  the  opposition  to  God's 
sovereignty  now  existing  is  in  some  way  to 
be  overcome;  the  world  is  to  be  converted. 
"  All  the  ends  of  the  world  shall  remember  and 
turn  unto  the  Lord ;  and  all  the  kindreds  of  the 


THE   MILLENNARIAN   THEORY   OF    MISSIONS.       lOI 

nations  shall  worship  before  thee."  *  ''  For  the 
earth  shall  be  filled  with  the  knowledge  of  the 
glory  of  the  Lord,  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea."  f 
"  For  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  even  unto  the 
going  down  of  the  same,  my  name  shall  be  great 
among  the  Gentiles  ;  and  in  every  place  incense 
shall  be  offered  unto  my  name,  and  a  pure  offer- 
ing :  for  my  name  shall  be  great  among  the 
heathen,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."  $  These  are 
too  clear  to  be  mistaken ;  but  the  question  still 
returns,  By  whom,  and  in  what  way,  shall  this 
great  change  be  wrought  ? 

It  is  certainly  clear  from  the  Scriptures  that 
the  efficient  agent  in  the  work  is  God  himself. 
The  individual  heart,  we  are  clearly  taught,  is 
renewed  only  by  a  divine  power.  It  is  to  God 
that  the  prayer  is  to  be  offered.  Create  in  me 
a  clean  heart,  and  renew  a  right  spirit  within 
me.§  It  is  God  alone  who  can  say,  I  will  give 
unto  them  a  new  heart.  || 

*  Ps.  xxii.  27.  J  Mai.  i.  11. 

t  Hab.  ii.  14.  §  Ps.  li.  10. 

11  Ezek.  xxxvi.  26.  q« 


102  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

"  As  many  as  received  him,  to  them  gave  he 
power  to  become  the  sons  of  God,  even  to  them 
that  beheve  on  his  name ;  which  were  born,  not 
of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the 
will  of  man,  but  of  God."*  "For  we  are  his 
workmanship,  created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto  good 
works,  which  God  hath  before  ordained  that  we 
should  walk  in  them."  f  "  So  then  it  is  not  of 
him  that  willeth,  nor  of  him  that  runneth,  but 
of  God  that  showeth  mercy."  f  "  Not  by  works 
of  righteousness  which  we  have  done,  but 
according  to  his  mercy  he  saved  us,  by  the 
washing  of  regeneration,  and  renewing  of  the 
Holy  Ghost."  §  "  Who  then  is  Paul,  and  who  is 
ApoUos,  but  ministers  by  whom  ye  believed, 
even  as  the  Lord  gave  to  every  man  }  I  have 
planted,  Apollos  watered ;  but  God  gave  the 
increase."  || 

The  heart  is  the  chaos  formless  and  void 
until  the  Spirit  of   God  broodeth  upon  it ;  and 

*  John  i.  12,  13.     t  Eph.  ii.  10.     }  Rom.  ix.  16. 
§  Tit.  iii.  5.     II  I  Cor.  iii.  5,  6. 


THE    MILLENNARIAN    THEORY   OF    MISSIONS.       IO3 

darkness  is  upon  the  face  of  its  depths  until 
God  saith,  Let  there  be  light.  But  as  the  cor- 
ruption of  society  is  only  the  outgrowth  and  the 
exhibition  of  the  corruption  of  the  heart,  and  as 
all  social  changes  only  represent,  and  are  pro- 
duced by,  changes  in  individual  character,  so  the 
conversion  of  the  world  is  only  the  conversion 
of  individual  souls ;  and  the  efficient  agent  in  it, 
therefore,  must  be  God  alone.  But  the  Bible 
does  not  leave  us  to  a  mere  inference  of  this 
sort.  It  abounds  in  direct  statements  which 
declare  the  same.  "  Thy  people  shall  be  willing 
in  the  day  of  thy  power."  *  "  And  I  will  break 
the  bow  and  the  sword  and  the  battle  out  of  the 
earth,  and  will  make  them  to  lie  down  safely."  t 
*'  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  Behold,  I  will  lift 
up  mine  hand  to  the  Gentiles,  and  set  up  my 
standard  to  the  people."  J  "I  the  Lord  will 
hasten  it  in  his  time."§  *' And  I  will  set  my 
glory  among  the  heathen,  and  all  the  heathen 
shall   see   my  judgment  that  I  have  executed, 

*  Ps.  ex.  3.     t  Hos.  ii.  18.     X  Isa.  xHx.  22.     §  Isa.  Ix.  22. 


104  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

and  my  hand  that  I  have  laid  upon  them."  * 
"  Moreover  I  will  make  a  covenant  of  peace 
with  them ;  and  I  will  place  them,  and  multiply 
them,  and  will  set  my  sanctuary  in  the  midst  of 
them  forevermore.  My  tabernacle  also  shall  be 
with  them  :  yea,  I  will  be  their  God,  and  they 
shall  be  my  people."  f 

The  force  of  these  teachings  is  admitted  on 
all  hands.  Those  who  deny  the  peculiar  inter- 
pretation which  the  millennarian  doctrine  puts 
upon  such  passages  affirm  as  confidently  as  the 
millennarians  themselves,  that,  all  through  the 
Bible,  a  divine  power  is  seen  to  be  necessary, 
and  is  declared  to  be  the  efficient  agency  in  the 
conversion  of  souls,  or  the  conversion  of  the 
world.  But  in  what  way  is  this  power  put 
forth }  Does  it  accompany  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel }  and  is  that  the  power  of  God  unto  sal- 
vation.? Or  is  it,  as  the  millennarians  claim, 
through  dire  providences,  through  mighty  con- 
vulsions of  nature,  through  disasters,  and  devas- 

*  Ezek.  xxxix.  21.  t  Ezek.  xxxvii.  26,  27. 


THE   MILLENNARIAN   THEORY    OF    MISSIONS.       10$ 

tations  of  the  nations,  by  fire,  by  famine,  by 
pestilence,  by  the  sword,  that  the  kingdom  and 
the  greatness  of  the  kingdom,  under  the  whole 
heaven,  shall  be  given  to  the  people  of  the  saints 
of  the  most  high  God  ? 

It  is  doubtless  true,  that  prophecy  abounds 
in  predictions  of  dire  events,  which,  as  terrible 
judgments  of  Jehovah,  precede  and  accompany 
the  final  triumph  of  the  Church.  It  is  also 
true,  that  these  events  are  powerful  auxiliaries 
in  the  advancement  of  God's  kingdom.  "  For 
when  thy  judgments  are  in  the  earth,"  says 
Isaiah,  "  the  inhabitants  of  the  world  will  learn 
righteousness."  *  But  it  is  equally  true,  that 
events  prodigiously  vast  and  terrible,  in  which 
a  divine  hand  has  been  conspicuous,  and  which 
have  mightily  aided  the  progress  of  the  Church, 
are  occurring  in  our  days,  as  they  have  occurred 
all  through  the  Christian  history  ;  and  it  is  pos- 
sible, at  least,  that,  among  the  great  and  terri- 
ble  events  which  the  Scriptures  declare   shall 

*  Isa.  xxvi.  9. 


I06  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

precede  and  prepare  the  way  for  the  triumph  of 
God's  kingdom,  some  of  these  may  be  included. 
But  a  few  years  ago,  there  was  brought  to  a 
close  a  gigantic  rebellion  in  China ;  and,  during 
the  twenty  years  of  its  continuance,  a  careful 
writer  in  ^'Fraser's  Magazine  "  *  estimates  that  it 
caused  the  death  of  two  hundred  millions  of 
human  beings  !  The  destruction  of  the  Jews, 
the  overthrow  of  the  Western  Roman  empire, 
the  rise  of  Mohammedanism  and  the  extension 
of  its  power,  the  religious  wars  connected  with 
the  Reformation,  the  French  Revolution,  the 
conflict  of  Germany  with  France,  and  our  own 
conflict  with  the  slave-power,  are  events  worthy 
of  the  most  appalling  descriptions  of  judgment 
and  devastation  which  prophecy  contains.  They 
are  events,  too,  which,  like  the  things  which  hap- 
pened unto  Paul,  —  things  which  seemed  at  first 
only  dire, — "have  fallen  out  rather  unto  the  fur- 
therance of  the  gospel."  f  There  may  be  darker 
and  more  terrible  occurrences  in  the  future  than 

*  November,  1S70.  t  Phil.  i.  12. 


THE    MILLENNARIAN    THEORY    OF    MISSIONS.        IO7 

have  yet  taken  place,  and  these  may  prepare 
the  way  for  more  conspicuous  triumphs  of  the 
gospel  than  we  have  yet  seen  ;  we  may,  perhaps, 
look  for  a  nation  to  be  born  in  a  day,  and  the 
birth  may  be  through  a  travail  whose  throes 
shall  convulse  the  world  :  but  what  reason  have 
we  to  expect  that  these  events  of  the  future, 
if  of  grander  degree,  shall  differ  in  kind  from 
those  of  the  past,  when,  all  along  through  the 
history  of  the  Church,  it  has  been  the  pillar  of 
cloud  and  of  fire  in  which  the  Leader  of  his 
people  has  gone  before,  and  guided  them  unto 
the  inheritance  which  he  has  promised  and 
provided  ?  Through  blood  and  terror,  through 
darkness  and  sorrow,  the  Church  has  gained  her 
victories,  and  enlarged  the  reign  of  peace  and 
hope  and  light  and  joy.  But,  while  this  is  true, 
we  must  remember  that  it  is  only  the  power  of 
the  truth  which  has  first  precipitated  the  con- 
flict ;  and  it  is  only  by  the  manifestation  of  the 
same  power,  that  the  results  of  the  conflict  are 
the  good   we   desire.     "  Think   not   that   I   am 


I08  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

come  to  send  peace  on  earth  :  I  came  not  to 
send  peace,  but  a  sword.  For  I  am  come  to 
set  a  man  at  variance  against  his  father,  and  the 
daughter  against  her  mother,  and  the  daughter- 
in-law  against  her  mother-in-law.  And  a  man's 
foes  shall  be  they  of  his  own  household."  * 

It  is  the  preaching  of  Christ's  gospel,  the 
gospel  which  proclaims  peace,  which  brings  out 
the  opposition  which  exists,  and  brings  on 
the  struggle  which  is  to  be  waged  between  the 
Church  and  the  world :  and  it  is  only  by  the 
preaching  of  the  same  gospel  that  this  opposi- 
tion is  finally  quelled,  and  the  enemy  of  the 
truth  becomes  changed  to  a  friend ;  as  it  is  the 
rising  of  the  sun  which  calls  forth  the  mists  of 
the  morning  from  the  marshes  and  fens  where 
the  night  has  engendered  them,  and  the  upward 
progress  and  continued  shining  of  the  same  sun 
which  dissipates  them  again.  This  is  the  way 
in  which  the  conversion  of  the  world  has  taken 
place  in  the  degree  to  which  it  has  thus  far  pro- 

*  Matt.  X.  34-36. 


THE    MILLENNARIAN    THEORY    OF    MISSIONS.       ICQ 

gressed.  Why  should  we  expect  any  different 
procedure  in  the  future  ?  Indeed,  the  prophe- 
cies which  seem  to  relate  more  particularly  to 
the  final  and  complete  triumph  of  the  Church 
are  clearly  susceptible  of  an  interpretation  which 
makes  that  triumph  in  the  end  to  hinge,  as  it 
has  done  from  the  beginning,  on  the  power  of 
God's  word,  with  the  added  power  of  his  Spirit. 
Of  Him  who  in  righteousness  doth  judge  and 
make  war,  whose  eyes  are  as  a  flame  of  fire,  and 
who  is  clothed  with  a  vesture  dipped  in  blood, 
whom  the  armies  which  were  in  heaven  followed, 
and  against  whom  the  beast,  and  the  kings  of 
the  earth,  and  their  armies,  were  gathered  to- 
gether to  make  war,  it  is  said  that  "  His  name  is 
called  The  Word  of  God."  *  "  And  out  of  his 
mouth  goeth  a  sharp  sword,  that  with  it  he 
should  smite  the  nations  ;  and  he  shall  rule  them 
with  a  rod  of  iron ;  and  he  treadeth  the  wine- 
press of  the  fierceness  and  wrath  of  Almighty 
God.  .  .  .  And  the  beast  was  taken,  and  with 

*  Rev.  xix. 


no  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

him  the  false  prophet  that  wrought  miracles 
before  him,  with  which  he  deceived  them  that 
had  received  the  mark  of  the  beast,  and  them 
that  worshipped  his  image.  .  .  .  And  the  rem- 
nant were  slain  with  the  sword  of  him  that  sat 
upon  the  horse,  which  sword  proceeded  out  of 
his  mouth."*  This  sword  —  elsewhere f  called 
the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  the  sword  forged  and 
furnished  by  the  Spirit  —  is  expressly  termed 
the  spoken  word  of  God,  J  which  is  quick  and 
powerful,  and  sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword. 
He  who  speaks  this  word,  out  of  whose  mouth 
this  sword  proceedeth,  is  the  Logos,  or  Word, 
which  was  in  the  beginning  with  God,  and 
which  was  God.  Other  prophetic  utterances 
are  in  striking  accord  with  this.  He  by  whose 
coming  "  the  wolf  also  shall  dwell  with  the  lamb, 
and  the  leopard  shall  lie  down  with  the  kid,  and 
the  calf  and  the  young  lion  and  the  fatling  to- 
gether, and  a  little  child  shall  lead  them,"  "shall 
smite  the  earth  with  the  rod  of  his  mouth ;  and 

*  Rev.  xix.  t  Eph.  vi.  17.  |  /3^/za. 


THE    MILLENNARIAN    THEORY    OF    MISSIONS.       I  I  I 

with  the  breath  of  his  lips  shall  he  slay  the 
wicked."  *  Again  :  it  is  said  that  **  that  Wicked 
one  whom  the  Lord  shall  destroy  with  the 
brightness  of  his  coming/'  "  he  shall  consume 
with  the  spirit  of  his  mouth."  f  In  the  glorious 
Person  whom  John  saw  in  the  midst  of  the  seven 
golden  candlesticks,  whose  countenance  was  as 
the  sun  shineth  in  his  strength,  and  who  had  in 
his  right  hand  seven  stars,  the  one  mark,  which, 
from  its  repetition,  seems  to  have  been  most 
conspicuous  was,  that  "  out  of  his  mouth  went  a 
sharp  two-edged  sword."  |  "  To  the  angel  of  the 
church  in  Pergamos  write  :  These  things  saith  he 
who  hath  the  sharp  sword  with  two  edges.  .  .  . 
Repent ;  or  else  I  will  come  unto  thee  quickly, 
and  will  fight  against  them  with  the  sword  of 
my  mouth."  §  We  need  to  be  most  humble  and 
reverent  in  our  interpretation  of  the  grand  sym- 
bols of  prophecy,  —  symbols  so  grand,  that  they 
often  dwarf  to  insignificance  all  our  interpreta- 
tions of  them ;  but  what  other  meaning  seems 

*  Isa.  xi.     t  2  Thess.  ii.  8.     J  Rev.  i.  16.     §  Ibid.  ii.  12,  16. 


112  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

SO  befitting  the  majestic  imagery  here  before  us, 
as  that  which  also  accords  with  what  we  have 
seen  to  be  true  ever  since  Christ  gave  his  last 
commission  to  his  disciples,  and  which  points  us 
to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  with  the  power 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  the  means  through  which 
the  nations  are  to  be  subdued  ? 

These  two  agencies  fitly  go  together,  and  are 
continually  associated  in  the  Bible  and  in  the 
history  of  the  Church.  To  the  dry  bones  which 
lay  in  the  valley  of  vision,  the  prophet  was 
commanded  to  prophesy,  and  proclaim  the  word 
of  the  Lord ;  and  then,  as  the  flesh  came  upon 
them,  but  without  the  breath  of  life,  he  was 
commanded  to  prophesy  again  :  "  Thus  saith  the 
Lord  God ;  Come  from  the  four  winds,  O  breath, 
and  breathe  upon  these  slain,  that  they  may  live. 
So  I  prophesied  as  he  commanded  me,  and  the 
breath  came  into  them,  and  they  lived,  and  stood 
up  upon  their  feet,  an  exceeding  great  army."  * 
Though  this  figure  is  expressly  referred  to  the 

*  Ezek.  xxxvii.  9,  10. 


THE    MILLENNARTAN    THEORY    OF    MISSIONS.       II3 

house  of  Israel,  as  typifying  their  restoration 
and  salvation,  the  promise  is  elsewhere  dis- 
tinctly made  :  "  I  will  pour  out  my  Spirit  upon 
all  flesh  ;  "  *  and  the  fulfilment  of  this  promise 
is  claimed  by  Peter,  when,  upon  the  day  of  Pen- 
tecost, the  disciples  were  filled  with  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  began  to  preach  with  such  power, 
through  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit,  that 
there  were  added  to  them  that  same  day  three 
thousand  souls.  The  preaching  of  the  gospel  is 
through  human  agency;  but  the  Divine  Spirit 
accompanies  it,  and  makes  it  efficacious.  The 
preaching  of  the  gospel  is  the  preaching  of 
God's  word ;  and  thus  there  is  in  it  a  divine  ele- 
ment and  power,  even  though  uttered  by  human 
lips.  The  divine  agency  is  all  conspicuous  in 
the  work.  Except  the  Lord  build  the  house, 
they  labor  in  vain  that  build  it.  Except  the 
Lord  keep  the  city,  the  watchman  laboreth  in 
vain.  God  is  the  efficient  author  of  regener- 
ation,   the    author    and  finisher    of    our  faith; 

*  Joel  ii.  28. 

10* 


114  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

not  a  step  can  be  taken  in  the  world's  conver- 
sion without  him.  The  praise  of  it,  and  the 
glory,  are  altogether  his.  But,  in  that  organic 
fellowship  of  the  saints  which  his  kingdom  is  to 
actualize  among  men,  human  hearts  are  knit 
together  in  love  and  sympathy  by  being  co- 
workers together  with  him.  He  associates  their 
agency  with  his  own  :  *'  Go  ye  into  all  the  world, 
and  preach  my  gospel  to  every  creature.  "  And, 
"  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of 
the  world."  The  association  of  this  commission 
with  this  promise  teaches  us  what  the  history 
of  the  Church  has  continually  illustrated,  that 
Christ's  presence  in  and  with  his  disciples  ac- 
companies their  preaching  of  his  gospel.  He  is 
with  and  in  them  as  a  living  inspiration  in  their 
obedience  to  his  command.  Their  obedience 
merits  nothing.  The  obedience,  indeed,  follows, 
and  neither  precedes  nor  procures,  the  inspira- 
tion. But  in  that  mysterious  fellowship  of  the 
Christian  disciple  with  his  Lord,  wherein  we 
are   united  to  him   as  the   branches   are   united 


THE    MILLENNARIAN    THEORY    OF    MISSIOxNS.       II5 

to  the  vine,  though  it  is  the  life  of  the  vine 
which  gives  all  their  vigor  and  growth  to  the 
branches,  yet  the  vigor  and  growth  of  the 
branches  draw  more  and  more  from  the  life- 
sustaining  power  of  the  vine ;  and  the  fulness 
which  they  receive  from  it,  therefore,  is  propor- 
tioned to  the  fulness  with  which  they  respond 
to  its  quickening  influence.  Every  obedience 
of  the  disciple  is  from  some  prior  inspiration 
of  his  Lord ;  but  every  obedience  draws  in 
some  fresh  inspiration,  which  is  to  him  a  closer 
fellowship,  and  which  furnishes  him  for  some 
higher  service.  The  work  which  we  do  in  God's 
kingdom,  he  requires  of  us  not  so  much  for  his 
sake  as  for  ours.  It  is  not  he  who  needs  it,  but 
ourselves.  We  do  not  grow,  we  cannot  live,  save 
in  obedience  to  him.  The  river  of  the  water  of 
pur  life,  clear  as  crystal,  proceedeth  only  from 
his  throne.*  His  commandments  are  benedic- 
tions ;  and  obedience  to  them  is  the  enlargement 
of    our   capacity,   and   the   opening   of    deeper 

*  Rev.  xxii.  i. 


Il6  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

channels  through  which  his  blessings  can  flow 
upon  us,  and  therefore  they  are  enjoined.  The 
works  of  holy  love  to  which  his  love  incites  us 
mark  steps  of  progress  in  the  spiritual  life ;  but 
the  solemn  truth  is  clear,  alike  from  the  Chris- 
tian experience  and  from  the  Bible,  that  failure 
in  these  works  marks  not  a  stationary  stage,  but 
steps  of  retrogression.  "  Faith,  if  it  hath  not 
works,  is  dead,  being  alone.  .  .  For  as  the  body 
without  the  spirit  is  dead,  so  faith  without  works 
is  dead  also."  *  The  Church  gains  strength, 
enlargement,  purity,  only  as  she  does  her  Lord's 
will,  only  as  she  associates  herself  with  him  in 
the  great  work  of  seeking  and  saving  the  lost 
for  which  he  came.  It  is  not  simply,  therefore, 
a  question  for  the  Church,  whether  missions  are 
a  hopeful  means  for  the  salvation  of  the  world, 
her  own  salvation  is  intimately  involved  in  the 
missionary  cause.  Fancying  that  she  is  the 
elect,  with  no  mission  to  work  for  the  extension 
of  his   kingdom,  but  only  to  wait  till  he  shalj 

*  James  ii.  17,  26. 


THE    MILLENNARIAN   THEORY    OF    MISSIONS.       11/ 

appear,  she  has  reason  to  look  well  to  her  own 
state,  lest  she  herself  become  a  reprobate  and  a 
castaway. 

When  the  proposition  was  before  the  Massa- 
chusetts Senate  to  incorporate  the  American 
Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions, 
and  the  objection  was  made,  that  we  had  so  little 
religion  at  home,  that  we  could  not  afford  to 
send  any  abroad  ;  it  was  replied,  that  religion 
was  a  commodity  of  which  the  more  we  exported, 
the  more  we  had  left  behind.  The  answer  was 
a  sound  one :  it  has  already  been  justified  by 
the  facts.  Those  branches  of  the  Church  which 
are  strongest  at  home  are  those  which  are  most 
efficient  in  carrying  the  gospel  abroad.  The 
increase  of  grace  to  ourselves  comes  from  the 
diffusion  of  that  which  we  possess.  "  There  is 
that  scattereth,  and  yet  increaseth ;  and  there  is 
that  withholdeth  more  than  is  meet,  but  it  tend- 
eth  to  poverty."*  The  light  ceaseth  to  be 
light  when   it   ceaseth  to   shine.     "Ye  are  the 

*  Prov.  xi.  24. 


Il8  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

light  of  the  world.  .  .  .  Neither  do  men  light 
a  candle,  and  put  it  under  a  bushel,  but  on  a 
candlestick  ;  and  it  giveth  light  unto  all  that  are 
in  the  house."  * 

The  failure  of  the  Church  in  many  parts  of 
the  Christian  world  to  engage  in  the  work  of 
evangelizing  the  nations  has  resulted  in  spiritual 
apathy  and  loss  of  power.  Indifference  within 
the  Church  to  the  conversion  of  the  world  begets 
infidelity  outside,  and  overwhelms  the  Church 
with  reproaches  which  she  has  no  means  to 
repel.  The  Church  cannot  stand  still  as  long  as 
there  is  any  progress  for  her  to  make ;  and  she 
may  never  stay  at  home  till  her  home  embraces 
the  world.  Some  years  since,  a  home  mission- 
ary in  Oregon  wrote  to  the  East,  "  Our  purpose 
is,  to  begin  to  think  and  feel  and  act  for  the 
world,  and  then  we  shall  be  aroused  to  act  for 
our  country  and  for  ourselves.  He  who  works 
well  in  the  gospel  must  work  on  the  world  plan 
of  the  gospel."     The  truth  of  this  view  is  seen 

*  Matt.  V.  14,  15. 


THE    MILLENNARIAN    THEORY    OF    MISSIONS.       II9 

from  the  whole  experience  of  the  Church  ever 
since  she  began  to  offer  the  prayer  of  the 
Psalmist,  "  God  be  merciful  unto  us,  and  bless 
us,  .  .  .  that  thy  way  may  be  known  upon  earth, 
and  thy  saving  health  among  all  nations."  * 

The  work  of  missions  is  worth  to  the  Church 
not  only  all  that  it  has  cost,  but  infinitely  more. 
And,  in  saying  this,  I  do  not  forget  what  it  has 
cost.  I  remember  the  sainted  ones  of  whom 
the  world  was  not  worthy,  whose  lives  have  been 
consumed  in  this  sacred  cause.  I  remember 
their  sacrifices,  the  burdens  and  toils  to  which 
they  have  submitted,  constrained  by  their  love 
of  Christ  and  their  zeal  for  his  kingdom.  But 
when  I  think  of  the  energy  and  patience  and 
faith,  the  self-forgetfulness  and  self-devotion, 
which  the  Church  has  shown  in  her  missionary 
work,  precious  as  is  the  offering,  I  cannot  but 
feel  that  the  Church  is  inexpressibly  richer  for 
the  grace  which  has  permitted  her  to  render  it. 
How  her  faith   has   been  strengthened  in  the 

*  Ps.  Ixvii.  I,  2. 


120  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

process !  How  her  love  for  Christ,  and  for  souls 
whom  Christ  has  loved,  has  thereby  deepened, 
and  grown  more  absorbing !  How  Christian 
hearts  have  thus  been  knit  together,  revealing, 
as  in  no  other  way,  the  oneness  of  the  members 
of  Christ's  body  with  each  other  and  with  their 
ever-living  Head!  What  new  views  of  the 
glory  of  Christ,  and  the  all-sufficiency  of  his 
atonement,  and  the  power  of  his  renewing 
grace,  have  thus  been  beheld  by  the  Church,  and 
disclosed  to  the  world !  What  an  irrefutable 
answer  to  all  infidelity,  what  a  triumphant  affir- 
mation of  her  divine  origin  and  claims,  does  the 
Church  possess  in  these  annals  of  the  patience 
and  the  faith  of  her  saints !  "  He  that  goeth 
forth  and  weepeth,  bearing  precious  seed,  shall 
di  ubtless  come  again  with  rejoicing,  bringing 
his  sheaves  with  him."  *  The  Church  is  richer, 
incalculably  richer,  by  all  her  sacrifices.  The 
true  economy  of  Christian  labor  is  its  widest 
possible  diffusion. 

*  Ps.  cxxvi.  6. 


THE    MILLENNARIAN   THEORY  OF    MISSIONS.       121 

The  missionary  spirit  is  the  normal  develop- 
ment of  the  Christian  life.  As  it  grows,  the 
Church  grows  in  purity  and  power  and  all 
Christian  efficiency.  That  the  work  of  missions 
does  not  diminish  the  work  of  the  Christian 
laborer  at  home,  but  that  this  is  rendered  easier 
and  far  more  efficient  through  the  mighty  reflex 
influence  which  comes  from  the  Christian  labor- 
ers abroad,  our  own  churches  have  too  clear 
evidence  to  doubt.  Not  only  do  the  great  be- 
nevolent societies  through  whose  agency  Amer- 
ican Christians  are  working  with  such  success 
—  the  Sunday  School  Union,  the  Tract  Society, 
the  Education  Society,  the  Bible  Society,  the 
Seaman's  Friend  Society,  the  Home  Missionary 
Society  —  follow  promptly,  in  the  order  of  time, 
the  organization  of  the  American  Board  of 
Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions  ;  but  the 
impulse  to  the  foreign  missionary  work  was 
really  the  source  of  all  these  other  enterprises. 
And  that  unprecedented  enlargement  of  the 
Church  which  the  present  century  has  disclosed 


122  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

within  our  own  borders  —  by  which,  notwith- 
standing  our  great  foreign  immigration,  and  our 
acquisition  of  Texas  and  California  and  New 
Mexico,  the  membership  of  our  Protestant  evan- 
gehcal  churches  has  increased  since  1800  two  and 
a  half  times  faster  than  the  population  —  is  most 
interestingly  connected  with  this  growing  mis- 
sionary spirit,  which  has  been  continually  stimu- 
lating our  activity  at  home,  and  continually 
receiving  from  this  activity  a  fresh  increase  for 
itself  in  return. 

That  the  evangelization  of  the  nations  is  not 
a  hopeless  undertaking,  as  our  millennarian 
brethren  claim,  nor  one  which  the  Church  is  not 
competent  to  accomplish  speedily,  is  quite  clear 
from  the  present  condition  and  recent  history  of 
missions.  The  history  of  moderns  missions 
does  not  yet  reach  three-fourths  of  a  century. 
In  1790  only  two  Protestant  missionary  societies 
were  in  existence,  —  the  Society  of  the  Mora- 
vians, and  that  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel 
in  Foreign  Parts,  neither  of  which  dates  farther 


THE    MILLENNARIAN    THEORY    OF    MISSIONS.       123 

back  than  earlier  in  that  century.  William 
Carey,  a  Baptist  clergyman,  born  at  Nottingham, 
Eng.,  176:,  is  properly  termed  the  pioneer  of 
modern  missions.  But  when  he  first  proposed, 
at  a  ministers'  meeting  of  which  he  was  a 
member,  as  a  topic  of  discussion,  the  duty  of 
Christians  to  attempt  the  spread  of  the  gospel 
among  heathen  nations,  the  venerable  Dr. 
Ryland,  presiding  officer  of  the  meeting,  re- 
ceived the  proposition  with  astonishment  and 
indignation.  *'  Young  man,  sit  down,"  said  he. 
"  When  God  pleases  to  convert  the  heathen,  he 
will  do  it  without  your  aid  or  mine."  There 
was  only  one  minister  in  London,  the  venerable 
John  Newton,  from  whom  Carey  found  the 
least  sympathy.  When,  in  1796,  two  overtures 
in  behalf  of  foreign  missions  were  laid  before 
the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
the  scheme  was  denounced  as  "highly dangerous 
to  the  good  order  of  society,"  and  was  rejected 
mainly  on  the  ground  "  that  it  was  improper  and 
absurd   to   propagate  the  gospel  abroad,  while 


124  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

there    remained    a   single   individual   at    home 
without  the  means  of  religious  knowledge." 

When  those  earnest  Christian  students  in 
Williams  College,  into  whose  hearts  there  was 
breathed  a  new  sense  of  duty  in  behalf  of  the 
world's  conversion,  formed  themselves  into  a 
society,  whose  object  they  declared  to  be  "  to 
effect  in  the  persons  of  its  members  a  mission 
or  missions  to  the  heathen,"  so  strongly  was 
public  opinion  opposed  to  such  an  undertaking, 
that  lest  they  should  be  thought  rashly  impru- 
dent, and  so  should  injure  the  cause  they  wished 
to  promote,  they  adopted  as  Article  Four  of 
their  organization,  that  "the  existence  of  this 
society  shall  be  kept  secret."  Having  before  us 
such  displays  of  missionary  activity  and  zeal  as 
characterize  the  present  time,  with  thirty-three 
Protestant  societies  in  Europe,  and  fifteen  in 
A-merica,  sending  out  more  than  eighteen  hun- 
dred foreign  missionaries,  sustaining  fourteen 
thousand  Christian  laborers  in  foreign  fields,  all 
told,  and  contributing  to  their  support  more  than 


THE    MILLENNARIAN    THEORY    OF    MISSIONS.       12$ 

five  million  dollars  per  year,  the  whole  Christian 
Church  thrilled  and  kindled  to  so  large  a  degree 
with  the  purpose  to  evangelize  the  world,  we 
find  it  difficult,  almost  impossible,  to  imagine 
the  indifference  and  the  opposition  to  the  cause 
of  missions  only  seventy  years  ago.  There  are 
now,  in  different  parts  of  the  world,  more  than 
fifteen  hundred  Bible  societies,  all  of  which  have 
been  organized  since  1804,  all  having  for  their 
sole  aim  to  put  these  glad  tidings  of  great  joy 
in  the  languages  and  the  hands  of  all  people. 
These  societies  have  issued,  within  the  last 
seventy  years,  more  than  a  hundred  and  thirty- 
five  million  copies  of  the  Sacred  Word,  in  lan- 
guages spoken  by  the  vast  majority  of  mankind. 
Two  of  these  societies  alone  —  the  British  and 
Foreign  and  the  American  Bible  Society  —  are 
printing  now  and  circulating,  on  an  average,  over 
ten  thousand  copies  of  the  Scriptures  per  day, 
or  three  millions  a  year,  in  various  tongues,  —  all 
this,  besides  the  multitudes  of  copies  published 
b}!  private  firms  and  other  agencies.     Never,  not 


126  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

even  in  apostolic  times,  has  the  Church  exercised 
any  thing  like  such  zeal  and  energy  for  the  con- 
version of  the  world  as  now  ;  and  never  has  there 
been  an  approach  to  such  efficiency  of  results  as 
the  present  century  reveals. 

There  were,  probably,  not  twenty  versions  of 
the  Scriptures,  all  told,  at  the  end  of  the  first 
thousand  years  of  the  Christian  era :  now  there 
are  two  hundred  and  seventy-four.  I  have  re- 
cently read  in  "  The  Indian  Evangelical  Review  "  * 
an  estimate  by  which  it  appears,  that,  at  the  end 
of  the  first  Christian  century,  there  were  not  half 
as  many  Christians  on  the  globe  as  are  found 
to-day  in  India  from  less  than  a  hundred  years 
of  missionary  effort.  In  Madagascar  alone,  a 
nation  of  five  milHons  of  people,  there  has  been 
wrought,  in  the  last  fifty  years,  as  complete  a 
revolution  as  was  found  in  the  Roman  empire 
down  to  the  time  of  Constantine.  Missionary 
efforts  have  never  been  so  numerous  or  so 
earnest,  and  their  numerical  successes  never  so 

*  Vol.  i.  No.  2,  p.  140. 


THE    MILLENNARIAN    THEORY    OF    MISSIONS.       1 2/ 

great,  as  at  the  present  time.  While  we  must 
not  take  to  ourselves  any  self-gratulation  for 
this ;  while  it  behooves  the  Church  to  be  hum- 
ble, and  to  recognize  the  source  of  all  this 
movement,  as  found  alone  in  the  quickening  in- 
spiration  of  her  Lord,  —  it  does  become  her  to 
welcome  with  gratitude  the  fruits  of  this  inspi- 
ration, and  find  in  it,  also,  new  zeal  for  larger 
efforts,  and  new  hope  for  grander  success.  The 
Church,  therefore,  which  withdraws  from  mis- 
sionary operations,  and  waits  for  some  millennial 
advent  of  her  Lord,  is  one  whose  eyes  are 
holden,  like  the  disciples  on  the  way  to  Emmaus, 
not  knowing  that  the  Lord  is  verily  risen,  has 
already  come,  and  is  even  now  walking  by  their 
side.  Oh  for  the  opened  eye  to  behold  him,  and 
the  kindling  inspiration  which  the  knowledge  of 
his  presence  gives ! 


FIFTH   LECTURE. 

THE   TRUE   METHOD   OF  MISSIONARY  OPERATIONS. 

But  if  it  be  true  that  Christian  influences 
are  the  only,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  all-suf- 
ficient means  for  the  world's  conversion,  there 
may  still  be  a  question  as  to  the  best  method  of 
employing  these.  There  is  a  broad  distinction 
between  the  Romish  and  the  Protestant  method 
of  carrying  Christianity  to  the  nations,  and  also 
an  important  difference  in  the  actual  procedure 
among  Protestants  themselves.  Protestantism 
teaches  that  the  soul,  only  by  a  living  faith  in 
Christ,  becomes  a  member  of  the  Church ;  while 
the  doctrine  of  Romanism  always  has  been  that 
the  Church  is  first,  and  that  union  with  it  pre- 
cedes, and  is  in  order  to,  any  union  with  Christ. 
Hence  the  Romish  method  of  missions  is  to 
128 


MISSIONARY    METHODS.  1 29 

convey  Christianity  to  the  heathen  world  by 
estabhshing  there  the  forms  and  ordinances  of 
the  Romish  Church.  It  is  not  by  the  preaching 
of  Christ  and  the  cross,  but  by  baptism  and 
penance  and  priestly  rites,  that  Romanism 
expects  to  save  the  world.  It  carries  with  it, 
to  a  new  field,  precisely  the  same  agencies 
which  it  maintains  where  it  has  been  longest 
known.  As  Cardinal  Wiseman  has  said,  "  We 
give  not  the  word  of  God  indiscriminately  to  all, 
because  God  himself  has  not  so  given  it.  We 
do  not  permit  the  indiscriminate  and  undirected 
use  of  the  Bible,  because  God  has  not  given  to 
his  Church  the  instinct  to  do  so ; "  *  as  Pope 
Gregory  VII.  declared,  that  "it  is  pleasing  to 
Almighty  God  that  his  sacred  worship  should 
be  performed  in  an  unknown  tongue,  in  order 
that  the  whole  world,  and  especially  the  most 
simple,  may  not  be  able  to  understand  it ; "  f 
and  as  this  has  been  the  view  of  Rome  all 
llong,  —  we   should   not   expect   the  Bible  and 

*  Bib.  Sac,  April,  1S60,  art.  v.  t  Ibid. 


I30  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

spiritual  agencies  to  be  foremost  in  Romish  mis- 
sions. As  Romanism  always  seeks  to  maintain 
itself  by  formal  observances,  by  authority,  by 
physical  or  secular  power,  we  are  not  surprised 
to  find  that  it  was  a  maxim  of  Francis  Xavier, 
"that  missionaries  without  muskets  do  never 
make  converts  to  any  purpose;"  the  truth  of 
which  maxim,  another  missionary  Jesuit  tells 
us,  "  is  confirmed  by  universal  experience ;  for 
neither  in  the  Brazils,  Peru,  Mexico,  Florida,  the 
Philippines,  or  Molucca,  have  any  conversions 
been  made  without  the  help  of  the  secular 
powers."*  Processions,  much  pageantry,  the 
representation  of  symbols,  appeals  to  the  eye 
rather  than  to  the  ear,  and  especially  the  ad- 
ministration of  baptism,  are,  besides  the  secular 
power,  the  chief  agencies  employed  in  Romish 
missions.  "  I  have  made  Christians,"  f  was 
Xavier's  favorite  expression  when  he  had  bap- 
tized infants,  or  taught  adults  to  repeat  the  pre- 
scribed formularies.     To  baptize  infants,  where- 

*  Venn's  I  ife  of  Xavier,  p.  528.  t  Venn,  p.  38. 


MISSIONARY    METHODS.  I3I 

ever  it  could  be  done,  and  to  regard,  as  was 
Xavier's  custom,  all  under  fourteen  years  of  age 
as  infants,  and  fit  subjects  for  the  rite;  to  pur- 
chase the  opportunity  for  baptism  by  bribes,  or 
to  force  it  by  terror  or  physical  power,  "driv- 
ing them  to  baptism,"  in  the  words  of  one  Jesuit 
writer,  "  as  beasts  are  driven  to  the  water,"  *  — 
is  the  Romish  method  of  saving  souls. 

The  annals  of  the  Society  for  the  Propaga- 
tion of  the  Faith  report  baptisms  by  the  hun- 
dred thousand  in  a  single  year,  of  children  of 
Pagans  in  danger  of  death.  "  By  means  of  four 
pounds  given  to  our  baptizcrs,"  writes  the  apos- 
tolic vicar  from  China,  "  we  can  regenerate  three 
or  four  hundred  children,  more  or  less,  two-thirds 
of  whom  go  almost  immediately  to  heaven. 
Urge,  therefore,  the  rich  to  open  their  purses. 
Tell  all  who  desire  to  draw  large  interest  for 
their  capital,  to  send  their  money  to  Su-tchuen, 
where  twenty  sous  produce  annually  two  treas- 
ures by  effecting  the  redemption  of  two  souls. 

*  Missionary  World,  p.  Si. 


132  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

It  was  not  our  salaried  baptizers  alone  that  con- 
ferred baptism  upon  94,131  children  of  Pagans 
who  were  in  danger  of  death ;  but  we  unceas- 
ingly exhort  the  pious  and  intelligent  faithful 
to  go  to  the  relief  of  children  in  the  neighbor- 
hood who  are  threatened  v/ith  being  lost.  It  is 
these  gratuitous  auxiliaries  that  annually  swell 
so  high  the  total  number  of  little  Chinese  bap- 
tized in  danger  of  death."  * 

The  results  of  such  a  method  of  missionary 
operations  may  be  stated  in  the  language  of  the 
Romish  missionaries  themselves.  In  one  of 
Xavier's  letters  to  a  brother  missionary  in  Trav- 
ancore,  he  writes,  "  If  you  will,  in  imagination, 
search  through  India,  you  will  find  that  few  will 
reach  heaven,  either  of  whites  or  blacks,  except 
those  who  depart  this  life  under  fourteen  years 
of  age,  with  their  baptismal  innocence  still  upon 
them."  t  The  Abbe  Du  Bois,  himself  a  Romish 
missionary  in  Mysore,  declares  that  Xavier, 
"  being  disheartened  by  the  invincible  obstacles 

*  Missionary  World,  p.  81.  f  Life,  p.  156. 


MISSIONARY    METHODS.  I33 

he  everywhere  met  in  his  apostolic  caieer,  and 
by  the  apparent  impossibility  of  making  real 
converts,  left  India  in  disgust/'  *  Another 
Roman-Catholic  writer,  describing  the  work  of 
Romish  missions  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  says 
that  "  little,  if  any  thing,  has  been  done  for  the 
prosperity  and  development  of  the  country,  or 
for  the  intellectual  and  moral  advancement  of 
the  people  ;  "  and  that  "there,  apparently,  as  in 
the  other  earlier  dependencies  of  Spain,  the 
Roman-Catholic  ritual  has  become  mingled  in 
the  most  extraordinary  manner  with  ceremonies 
borrowed  from  Paganism."  f 

Another  Jesuit  missionary  declares,  of  the 
converts  in  the  field  with  which  he  was  conver- 
sant, "  that  they  had  scarcely  any  thing  belong- 
ing to  Christianity,  besides  the  bare  name  of 
Christians  ;  that  they  only  minded  the  name  they 
received  in  baptism,  and,  not  long  after,  forgot 
that  too."  X     The    testimony  of    Protestant  ob- 

*  Anderson,  For.  Miss.,  p.  27S.    t  Venn,  p.  316. 
t  Miss.  World,  p.  82. 
12 


134  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

servers  is  to  the  same  effect.  The  secretary  of 
the  London  Missionary  Society,  whose  oppor- 
tunities for  judging  were  most  ample,  de- 
clares of  the  Romish  converts  in  Southern 
\ndia,  that,  "  except  as  to  name,  they  were  ex- 
actly and  in  every  respect  the  same  heathen 
Pariahs  as  they  were  before."  *  While  the 
Roman-Catholic  mission  in  the  kingdom  of 
Kongo  had  full  sway  for  two  centuries  under 
Portuguese  protection,  yet,  when  that  protection 
ceased,  the  mission  perished,  and  left,  according 
to  the  statement  of  Wilson  in  his  "Western 
Africa,"  "the  unfortunate  inhabitants  of  that 
country  in  as  deep  ignorance  and  superstition  as, 
and  perhaps  in  greater  poverty  and  degradation 
than,  they  would  have  been  if  Roman  Catholi- 
cism had  never  been  proclaimed  among  them."f 
During  the  hundred  and  forty  years  in  which 
Romish  missions  were  tolerated  in  China,  five 
hundred  missionaries  were  sent  from  Europe  to 
China.    But  says  Dr.  Wells  Williams,  a  man  of 

*  Miss,  in  S.  India,  p.  34.  t  p.  329. 


MISSIONARY    METHODS.  1 35 

singular  clearness  in  his  judgment,  and  accuracy 
of  statement,  "  What  salutary  effect  has  this 
large  body  of  Christians  wrought  in  the  vast 
population  of  China  ?  None,  absolutely  none, 
that  attract  attention.  While  many  of  their 
converts  exhibited  the  greatest  constancy  in 
their  profession,  suffering  persecution,  torture, 
imprisonment,  banishment,  and  death,  rather 
than  deny  their  faith,  the  mass  of  the  Romish 
converts  in  China  can  hardly  be  considered  to 
have  been  much  better  than  baptized  Pagans."  * 
Very  little  hope  of  good  can  therefore  be  based 
upon  the  success  of  Romish  missions.  They 
have  had  the  grandest  opportunity ;  they  have 
had  means  of  money,  and  men  without  stint ; 
they  have  been  conducted  with  an  energy  and 
ceal,  and  often  with  a  self-devotion,  to  which  the 
ribute  of  our  admiration  should  not  hz  wanting : 
jut  as  they  have  not  wrought  with  t  hat  Chris- 
tian power  which  produces  purity  of  heart ;  as 
their   baptismal   regenerations,  so   lavishly  con- 

*  Middle  Kingdom,  vol.  ii.  p.  324. 


136  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

ferred,  have  not  been  followed  by  newness  of 
life,  —  we  must  believe  that  the  extension  of 
Christianity  is  something  other  than  the  spread 
of  the  peculiarities  and  practices  of  the  Romish 
Church,  and  that  the  conversion  of  the  world 
to  Christ  demands  quite  another  method  of 
missionary  operations  than  theirs. 

The  method  of  Protestant  missions  is  a  very 
different  one,  and  grows  out  of  the  cardinal 
doctrine  of  Protestantism  itself.  This  is  not, 
as  too  often  stated,  a  protest  against  Romish 
authority.  In  so  far  as  it  is  a  protest,  it  is  a 
protest  against  the  Romish  doctrine  of  salvation. 
In  the  Romish  doctrine,  salvation  is  always 
made  dependent  upon  external  forms  and 
priestly  mediation:  it  is  to  be  sought  by  pen- 
ances and  rites,  by  bodily  mortification,  by 
works  which  men  can  do,  rather  than  by  the 
grace  which  God  alone  can  give.  But  the  great 
thought  of  the  Reformation  was,  that  our  own 
works  cannot  justify  us  before  God  ;  that  the 
righteousness  by  which  we  can  stand  approved  in 


MISSIONARY   METHODS.  1 3/ 

his  sight  is  not  in  us,  but  in  Christ ;  that  faith  in 
the  crucified  Christ  can  alone  give  us  forgiveness 
of  sins,  and  the  indwelHng  of  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
in  a  word,  that  salvation  is  not  wrought  by  man, 
ourselves,  or  others,  but  is  a  free  gift,  through  the 
all-perfect  work  of  the  divine  Redeemer.  This, 
from  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  has  been  the 
essential  element  of  Protestantism,  and  is  still 
the  one  point  wherein  its  distinction  from  the 
Papacy  is  most  clearly  to  be  noted.  Tl"  Roman- 
ist still,  as  of  old,  maintains  that  the  Church  is 
the  necessary  means  for  faith  ;  that  only  by  the 
Church  can  the  soul  come  to  Christ ;  while  Prot- 
estantism now,  as  ever,  declares  that  the  soul 
can  only  be  a  member  of  Christ's  body  as  it 
partakes  of  his  life  and  spirit ;  that  it  can  only 
come  to  the  Church  as  it  has  first  come  to  him. 
In  a  word.  Protestantism  makes  religion  a  per- 
sonal concern  of  the  individual  subject,  while 
Romanism  sinks  the  individual  in  the  body  of 
the  Church. 

This  radical  difference  of  doctrine  illustrates 

13* 


138  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

exactly  the  difference  between  Protestant  and 
Romish  missions.  Protestant  missions  do  not 
begin  by  imposing  the  forms,  and  administering 
the  ordinances,  of  the  Church ;  but  they  seek  the 
conversion  and  new  Ufe  of  individual  souls. 
They  take  the  Bible;  they  preach  the  gospel; 
they  attempt  to  give  the  knowledge  of  salvation 
through  Jesus  Christ  alone.  If  there  were  any 
doubt  about  the  propriety  of  this  method,  such 
doubts  must  disappear,  and  the  method  can  be 
seen  to  have  its  sufficient  justification,  in  the 
actual  results  of  Protestant  missions,  as  already 
seen  in  these  lectures. 

But  on  the  Protestant  ground  there  is  an 
important  question,  upon  which  a  wide  difference 
of  opinion  and  method  actually  exists  among 
Protestant  missionaries  and  Protestant  friends 
of  missions.  There  is  no  difference  of  view 
among  evangelical  Protestants  as  to  the  grand 
aim  of  missions,  and  the  comprehensive  means 
in  accomplishing  it.  That  the  conversion  of  the 
world  is  the  end  sought,  and  the  preaching  of 


.MISSIONARY    METHODS.  1 39 


the  gospel  the  means  thereto,  all  agree.  But  shall 
we  take  the  gospel  at  the  outset,  and  proclaim 
it  to  the  heathen  just  as  soon  as  we  can  utter  it } 
or  shall  we,  rather,  seek  to  prepare  them  for  its 
reception  by  a  prior  course  of  instruction  in 
other  things  .-*  Shall  we  educate  them  in  order 
to  Christianize  them  }  or  shall  we  seek  to  Chris- 
tianize them  first,  leaving  education  to  follow  as 
it  may  }  This  is  a  different  question  from  the  one 
we  have  already  discussed  respecting  education. 
We  have  seen  that  education  as  such  has  no 
purifying  power.  An  increase  of  intelligence  is 
not  necessarily  accompanied  by  an  increase  of 
virtue.  The  grosser  and  more  revolting  forms 
of  vice  may  disappear  from  view  in  a  more 
refined  and  cultured  society,  while  still  the 
selfishness  and  sensuality  of  the  soul  remain 
unchecked,  and  even  become  more  intensely 
dominant.  But  may  not  education  in  the  hands 
of  the  missionary,  education  accompanied  by 
Christian  teaching,  be  the  means  of  reaching 
those  to  whom  the  missionary  might  have  no 


140  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

Other  way  of  access  ?  When  we  go  to  the 
heathen  who  have  attained  a  certain  degree  of 
civiHzation,  as  the  Japanese,  the  Chinese,  and 
the  Hindus,  and  who  might  thus  be  attracted 
by  opportunities  for  education  when  direct 
Christian  influence  would  be  repulsive,  should 
we  not  set  up  schools,  whose  pupils,  brought 
thus  under  our  instruction  in  letters  and  science, 
we  might  be  able  also  to  instruct  in  divine 
things  ?  The  question  is  a  difficult  one ;  and 
directly  opposite  answers  are  given  it  by  Prot- 
estant missionaries,  accompanied  by  correspond- 
ingly divergent  methods  in  Protestant  missions. 

It  is  admitted,  on  all  hands,  that  the  apostolic 
method  was  that  of  direct  evangelization.  The 
apostles  did  not  plant  schools.  They  preached 
the  gospel,  and  planted  churches,  and,  so  far  as 
we  can  learn,  they  left  all  questions  of  educa- 
tion to  adjust  themselves  as  the  new  spirit 
which  followed  their  labors  would  direct. 

But  though  there  is  no  question  that  they 
began  and  continued  and  finished  their  mission 


MISSIONARY    METHODS.  I4I 

in  directly  proclaiming  Christ,  not  finding  any 
educational  or  other  work  a  necessary  prelimi- 
nary to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  it  is  said 
that  "the  apostles  were  men  raised  up  at  a 
special  time,  and  for  a  special  service ;  and  it 
does  not  follow,  that,  because  twelve  or  fourteen 
of  Christ's  first  disciples  were  chosen  from  the 
rest  for  a  special  service,  therefore  all  his  work- 
ing disciples  in  after-ages  should  do  exactly  as 
they  did."  *  "  There  are  many  aids  in  the  hands 
of  the  modern  missionary  which  were  not  in  ex- 
istence at  the  time  of  the  apostles  :  we  may  not 
argue,  therefore,  too  closely  from  apostolic  pro- 
cedure." I  give  the  position  just  as  it  is  taken  ; 
but,  after  all,  it  must  be  regarded  as  a  very 
striking  fact,  that  Paul,  writing  to  the  Corinthi- 
ans what  the  spirit  of  inspiration  must  have 
directed  also  for  the  instruction  of  the  whole 
Church  in  all  after-time,  should  say,  "And  I, 
brethren,  when  I  came  to  you,  came  not  with 
excellency   of    speech   or  of   wisdom,  declaring 

*  Allahabad  Conference,  p.  114  :  Mr.  Miller's  paper. 


142  CIiraSTIAN    MISSIONS. 

unto  you  the  testimony  of  God.  For  I  de- 
termined not  to  know  any  thing  among  you,  save 
Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified.  .  .  .  And  my 
speech  and  my  preaching  was  not  with  enticing 
words  of  man's  wisdom,  but  in  demonstration 
of  the  Spirit  and  of  power :  that  your  faith 
should  not  stand  in  the  wisdom  of  men,  but  in 
the  power  of  God."  * 

The  wisdom  of  men,  the  enticing  words  of 
man's  wisdom,  would  seem,  from  the  whole  tenor 
of  this  passage,  and  that  which  precedes  it,  to 
mean  persuasions  addressed  to  the  intellect  in 
the  effort  thus  to  reach  and  renovate  the  inner 
life.  It  might  be  urged,  with  considerable  force, 
that  this  would  fairly  include  efforts  of  what- 
ever sort,  to  educate  men,  as  a  preliminary  step 
to  their  conversion,  and,  if  this  be  so,  Paul  not 
only  renounced  such  efforts  in  his  own  pro- 
cedure, but  sets  them  before  us  as  something 
which  others  should  equally  eschew. 

The  more  carefully  we  look  at  Paul's  method 

*  I  Cor.  ii.  I,  2,  4,  5. 


MISSIONARY    METHODS.  I43 

of  preaching  the  gospel  to  the  heathen,  the  more 
clearly  shall  we  see  how  profoundly  it  was 
adapted,  not  only  to  the  wants  of  his  time,  but 
of  all  time.  Paul  did  not  discard  education,  nor 
consider  the  culture  or  the  speculations  of  the 
intellect  as  of  no  concern  ;  but  he  took  up  these 
afterwards.  He  began  with  the  preaching  of 
Christ.  Until  the  heathen  could  know  him,  he 
determined  not  to  know  any  thing  among  them, 
save  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified  ;  that  their 
faith  might  not  stand  in  the  wisdom  of  men,  but 
in  the  power  of  God.  But,  when  this  was  accom- 
plished, he  was  ready  for  all  such  speculations 
as  the  great  truths  he  was  proclaiming  might 
require.  "Howbeit  we  speak  wisdom  among 
them  that  are  perfect,  which  none  of  the  princes 
of  this  world  knew."  Historically  we  can  say, 
that  education  has  always  followed  the  preaching 
of  the  gospel.  The  Church  has  always  been  the 
mother  of  learning.  The  inspiration  of  the  new 
life,  once  enkindled  in  the  soul,  quickens  the 
whole  man  to   a   new  development.     The   ncv; 


144  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

development  will,  in  every  case,  follow  the 
inspiration  of  the  new  life ;  but  if  we  seek  the 
development  first,  whether  we  succeed  in  gaining 
it  in  this  way,  or  not,  we  do  not  thereby  make 
progress  towards  the  inspiration. 

If  we  are  wise,  we  shall  never  ignore  the  great 
fact  that  men  are  not  lifted  from  a  lower  to  a 
higher  plane  of  life  through  processes  of  the 
understanding,  or  through  any  enlightenment  or 
enlargement  of  the  intellectual  powers.  Men 
are  not  perhaps  in  any  thing,  certainly  in  the 
comprehensive  conduct  of  their  life,  governed 
by  their  understandings.  I  do  not  now  try 
to  explain  the  fact :  I  only  state  it  as  within 
the  sight  of  all.  The  controlling  motives  in 
human  conduct  do  not  spring  from  the  intel- 
lectual side  of  human  nature.  We  do  not  love 
as  a  process  of  inference,  nor  hate  as  a  logical 
deduction.  That  which  is  all  clear  to  the  intel- 
lect may  be  any  thing  but  cogent  to  the  heart 
and  to  the  will. 

The  only  motive  which  can  move  a  will  is 


MISSIONARY   METHODS.  I45 

either  a  will  itself,  or  something  into  which  a 
will  enters.  It  is  not  a  thought,  but  only  a  sen- 
timent, a  deed,  or  a  person,  by  which  we  become 
truly  inspired.  It  is  not  the  intellect,  but  the 
heart  and  the  will,  through  which  and  by  which 
we  are  controlled.  It  is  not  the  precepts  of  life, 
but  life  itself,  by  which  alone  we  are  begotten, 
and  born  unto  life. 

Now,  there  are  two  ways  in  which  living 
power,  personal  power,  the  power  of  a  will,  may 
enter  a  soul,  and  give  it  life  :  the  one  is  when 
God's  will  works  upon  us ;  and  the  other,  when 
o^ir  wills  work  upon  one  another.  God's  will 
ii>ay  directly  penetrate  ours,  enabling  us  to  will 
and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure ;  and  our  own 
wills,  thus  inspired,  may  be  the  torch  to  kindle 
other  wills  with  the  same  inspiration.  It  is  in 
only  one  of  these  two  ways  that  a  human  soul 
can  be  truly  inspired;  and,  without  a  true  inspira- 
tion, no  amount  of  instruction,  whether  in  duty 
or  life,  or  any  thing  else,  will  change  a  single 
moral  propensity. 

«3 


146  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

Can,  therefore,  schools,  or  colleges,  or  educa- 
tional influences  of  any  sort,  whether  in  Chris- 
tian or  unchristian  lands,  operate  as  an  agency 
for  the  improvement  of  human  character,  save 
as  they  bring  directly  before  the  mind,  first,  last, 
and  midst  and  without  end,  the  personal  will  of 
God  as  expressed  and  made  mighty  in  the  liv- 
ing Christ  and  the  living  Christian  ?  If  mission 
schools,  therefore,  are  properly  to  be  started 
among  the  heathen,  they  should  not  be  under- 
taken as  a  preparation,  but  as  a  place,  for  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel.  If  required  as  a  pre- 
paratory step  to  something  better,  it  is  not  to 
be  denied  that  they  may  easily  become  prepara- 
tory steps  to  something  worse.  If  the  mis- 
sionary spends  his  time  in  teaching  the  ignorant 
to  read,  this  acquisition  may  enable  them  to 
read  the  Bible,  and  good  books,  it  is  true ;  but 
it  is  equally  true  that  it  may  furnish  them 
acquaintance,  also,  with  books  of  another  and 
a  contrary  nature.  And  if  only  the  intellect  has 
become  enlightened,  and  the  heart  still  remains 


MISSIONARY    METHODS.  I47 

unchanged  in  its  corruption,  will  they  not  be 
just  as  likely,  to  say  the  least,  to  read  the  bad 
as  the  good  ?  and  thus  may  not  their  intellec- 
tual quickening,  if  this  is  all  that  has  been  done, 
prove  a  curse,  instead  of  a  blessing  ?  There  is 
abundant  ground  for  such  an  inquiry.  In 
"  The  Indian  Evangelical  Review,"  in  an  article 
upon  Education  in  Bengal,  I  find  the  following : 
"  When  educated,  what  do  the  people  read } 
The  issue  of  books  and  pamphlets  is  increasing 
yearly  at  an  enormous  rate ;  but  very  few  of  even 
the  best  vernacular  books  are  free  from  obscen- 
ity. The  great  mass  of  novels,  dramas,  and 
poetical  works  now  published  in  Bengal,  is  dis- 
tressingly corrupt  and  filthy.  Immoral  books 
and  pamphlets  are  obtained  easily  by  the  pupils 
in  the  schools  and  colleges,  and  circulate  freely 
among  them.  Book-hawkers  find  admission  to 
the  families  of  the  respectable  classes,  and 
supply  the  females  with  the  filthiest  trash. 
And,  as  the  reading  power  of  the  country 
is  increased,  this  vile  stream,  if  allowed  to  flow 


148  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

on  unchecked,  will  deposit  its  contaminating 
filth  over  a  wider  surface.  Of  a  certainty,  this 
matter  demands  the  profound  attention  of  the 
educators  of  the  people."  * 

Schools  where  converts  are  instructed,  and 
thus  trained  for  usefulness,  are,  of  course,  well, 
and  may  demand  the  missionary's  careful  atten- 
tion ;  but  is  it  a  wise  expenditure  of  missionary 
energy  to  educate  heathen  minds  in  a  way 
which,  in  the  language  of  a  speaker  at  the  Alla- 
habad Conference,  "  sets  them  the  more  against 
us,  and  gives  them  a  club  to  break  our  heads  "  }  f 
This  is  a  danger,  surely,  to  be  guarded  against ; 
and  is  it  not  one  always  to  be  apprehended, 
when  we  use  any  other  weapon  in  the  great 
conflict  of  the  Church  and  the  world  than  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  word  of  God  } 
I  would  speak  with  diffidence  upon  this  point ; 
for  I  know  there  are  accomplished  educators  at 
home,  and  very  successful  missionaries  abroad, 
who  affirm   a   different   opinion :   but   I  cannot 

*  Number  for  October,  1873,  P-  164.    t  Proceedings,  p.  121. 


MISSIONARY    METHODS.  I49 

shut  out  the  conviction,  that  while  a  Christian 
influence,  wherever  effective,  will  lead  to  educa- 
tion, yet  education  itself,  not  only  does  not  Chris- 
tianize, but  may  have  a  result  which  is  positively 
unchristian.  It  is  true  that  converts  are  often 
gathered  from  mission  schools ;  but  I  think  no 
one  would  doubt  that  this  is  always  the  result 
of  the  Christian  teaching  which  those  schools 
enjoy ;  and  I  must  believe,  that,  if  the  efforts 
employed  in  teaching  letters  and  science  to  un- 
converted Pagans  had  been  wholly  expended  in 
the  teaching  of  Christ,  still  larger  results  would 
have  been  seen.  If  we  should  go  to  the  heathen 
as  Paul  did,  determined  not  to  know  any  thing 
among  them  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  cruci- 
fied, attempting  no  schools  for  the  unconverted, 
but  establishing  these  only  to  train  those  who 
have  become  Christ's  disciples  for  the  new 
work,  in  the  new  relations  of  life  unto  which 
they  are  called,  speaking  wisdom  among  them 
that  are  perfect,  I  cannot  but  believe  that  the 
number  would  be  immeasurably  increased  of 
13* 


150  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

those  whose  faith  should  stand,  not  in  the  wis- 
dom of  men,  but  in  the  power  of  God.  This  I 
believe,  because  of  the  great  truth,  which  we 
cannot  too  largely  consider,  that  the  preaching 
of  the  gospel  is  in  reality  not  the  proclamation 
of  a  doctrine,  but  the  holding-up  of  a  life.  The 
gospel  is  not  a  theory,  but  a  history.  Its  truths 
are  historical  facts,  and  therefore  cannot  be  ex- 
pressed in  abstract  statements  which  the  under- 
standing or  the  imagination  can  exhaust.  They 
reach  the  will,  and  have  a  power  to  constrain 
conduct,  and  mould  character,  because  they 
reveal  God's  will  in  his  act,  in  his  personal  work 
for  man's  recovery. 

The  gospel  is  a  revelation  of  what  God  has 
done.  It  is  not,  therefore,  simply  a  thought, 
which  could  never  inspire  us,  but  it  is  a  senti- 
ment, a  deed,  a  living  person,  with  which  we  are 
brought  face  to  face  in  the  gospel.  The  his- 
torical Christ,  who  lived  and  died  and  rose 
again,  and  who  ever  lives  in  his  disciples,  repro- 
ducing himself  in  every  Christian  life,  wherever 


MISSIONARY    METHODS.  I5I 

found,  and  who  makes  his  people  thus  the  in- 
struments for  the  inspiration  of  other  souls,  he 
is  the  wisdom  of  God,  and  the  power  of  God,  to 
every  one  that  believeth.  When  belief  is  fixed, 
then  we  may  translate  this  deed  into  a  doctrine, 
this  personal  history  into  a  form  upon  which  the 
understanding  can  expatiate ;  but  this  procedure 
of  the  understanding  has  value  only  as  it  pro- 
ceeds from  faith.  Faith  is  its  source,  but  not 
its  end.  Faith  begets  all  sound  speculations  of 
the  intellect  respecting  the  historical  facts  of  the 
gospel ;  faith  inspires  the  process  whereby  the 
deeds  of  Christ  are  translated  into  the  doctrines 
of  the  Church ;  but  faith  itself  is  not  begotten 
in  this  way.  Faith  is  the  gift  of  God  :  it  is  the 
work  of  God's  Spirit  alone  ;  and  it  is  the  divine 
history,  the  divine  deeds,  it  is  God  in  Christ, 
and  Christ  in  the  believer,  through  which  the 
Spirit  works  ;  for  said  the  Lord  himself,  "  When 
he,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come,  he  will  guide 
you  into  all  truth  :  for  he  shall  not  speak  of 
himself  ...  he   shall   glorify   me :   for   he   shall 


152  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

receive    of     mine,    and     shall     show    it     unto 
you."  * 

This  ought  to  be  no  strange  doctrine  to  us. 
The  great  theme  of  the  early  preachers  of  the 
gospel  was  not  simply  Christ's  doctrine,  but 
Christ  himself.  They  did  not  preach  about 
him  so  much  as  they  preached  him.  They 
ceased  not,  it  is  expressly  said,  to  teach  and  to 
preach  Jesus  Christ.  Whatever  signs  the  Jews 
required,  whatever  wisdom  the  Greeks  sought 
after,  the  apostles  preached  unto  them  all  alike 
"  Christ  crucified,  unto  the  Jews  a  stumbling- 
block,  and  unto  the  Greeks  foolishness ;  but  unto 
them  which  are  called,  both  Jews  and  Greeks, 
Christ,  the  power  of  God,  and  the  wisdom  of 
God."t  "  Some  indeed,"  says  Paul, "  preach  Christ 
even  of  envy  and  strife ;  and  some  also  of  good 
will.  .  .  .  But  what  then  ?  notwithstanding,  every 
way,  whether  in  pretence  or  in  truth,  Christ  is 
preached ;  and  I  therein  do  rejoice,  yea,  and  will 
rejoice."  J     This   is   "  the  mystery  which  hath 

*  John  xvi.  13,  14.      t  I  Cor.  i.  23,  24.      }  Phil.  i.  15,  18. 


MISSIONARY   METHODS.  1 53 

been  hid  from  ages  and  from  generations,  but 
now  is  made  manifest  to  his  saints :  to  whom  God 
would  make  known  what  is  the  riches  of  the 
glory  of  this  mystery  among  the  Gentiles  ;  which 
is  Christ  ir.  you,  the  hope  of  glory :  whom  we 
preach,  warning  every  man,  and  teaching  every 
man  in  all  wisdom  ;  that  we  may  present  every 
man  perfect  in  Christ  Jesus."  *  The  meaning  of 
all  this  is  not  obscure.  The  historical  Christ, 
the  crucified  and  risen  and  ever-living  Christ, 
was  the  one  theme  of  the  apostles'  preaching. 
But  if  their  example  be  not  thought  sufficiently 
instructive,  if  we  fancy  that  God  has  taught  us 
more,  and  has  put  better  methods  in  our 
thoughts  than  the  apostles  in  the  early  days  of 
the  preaching  of  the  gospel  were  able  to  discern, 
yet  the  great  truth  remains,  that  it  is  personal 
power  alone  by  which  persons  are  moved ;  and 
the  human  will,  whether  ignorant  or  enlightened, 
needs  more  than  the  precepts  of  life,  needs  life 
itself,  to  kindle  it  into  life.     In  Christian  or  un- 

*   Col.  i.  2(>-28. 


154  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

christian  lands,  therefore,  the  teaching  of  schools 
is  alone  valuable  when  applied  to  cultivate  the 
understanding  of  those  whose  wills  are  already 
converted,  or  when  penetrated  through  and 
through  with  the  preaching  of  Christ,  and  him 
crucified,  to  those  still  dead  in  sin. 


SIXTH   LECTURE. 

MOTIVES    FOR   A   HIGHER   CONSECRATION   TO   THE 
MISSIONARY   WORK. 

The  considerations  thus  far  presented  are 
not  sufficient  to  inspire  the  Church  with  the 
high  missionary  zeal  to  which  she  is  sum- 
moned. The  wants  of  the  world  are  clear; 
the  failure  of  commerce,  arts,  institutions, 
education,  to  supply  these  wants,  is  unmis- 
takable ;  the  actual  success,  as  well  as  the 
ideal  character,  of  the  gospel,  puts  its  adaptation 
for  the  great  work  beyond  a  doubt ;  yet  the 
world  will  be  left  to  perish,  while  men  will 
be  still  seeking  to  save  it  by  hopeless  and  help- 
less devices  of  their  own,  and  the  Church  will 
sink  into  apathy,  or  rouse  herself  only  to  feeble 
endeavors,  until  some  more  potent  motive  than 

155 


156  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

these  shall  give  her  inspiration.  Whence  shall 
this  motive  come  ?  How  shall  the  Church  re- 
ceive the  unclouded  face  and  the  quickening 
energy  which  shall  enable  her  to  look  forth  as 
the  morning,  fair  as  the  moon,  clear  as  the  sun, 
and  terrible  as  an  army  with  banners  ?  Of 
course,  there  is  but  one  comprehensive  answer 
to  this  inquiry.  The  Church  can  arise  and  shine, 
her  light  having  come,  only  as  the  glory  of  her 
Lord  shall  have  risen  upon  her.  He  is  her  life, 
and  she  will  have  energy,  endurance,  and  holy 
zeal  in  her  great  work,  only  as  he  gives  her  his 
strength  and  inspiration.  But  the  practical 
question  returns,  How  shall  this  be  ?  Can  the 
Church  herself  do  aught  to  gain  this  endow- 
ment }  Must  she  lie  still,  and  wait  for  the  com- 
ing of  her  Lord,  expecting  no  help  till  he  shall 
bring  it,  and  making  no  efforts  till  she  shall  re- 
ceive his  quickening  energy }  or  can  she  hasten 
his  advent  by  any  endeavors  of  her  own  ?  But 
the  Lord  is  already  in  the  midst  of  his  Church ; 
and  this  waiting  for  his  coming  only  shows  that 


A    HIGHER   CONSECRATION.  157 

our  eyes  are  holden,  so  that  we  do  not  see  his 
actual  presence.  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world,"  *  is  the  farewell 
assurance  with  which  he  accompanies  his  last 
command  to  his  disciples  :  "  Go  ye  into  all  the 
world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature." 
"  Know  ye  not  your  own  selves,"  says  Paul  to 
the  Corinthians,  "how  that  Jesus  Christ  is  in 
you,  except  ye  be  reprobates  ? "  f  The  Church  is 
his  body,  in  which  he  dwells,  and  of  which  he  is 
the  head  :  "  For  we  are  members  of  his  body,  of 
his  flesh,  and  of  his  bones."  J  "  And  he  is  the 
head  of  the  body,  the  church."  §  He  is  the  life, 
as  well  as  the  hope  of  glory,  of  all  his  people. 
By  and  by  his  people  are  to  be  with  him  accord- 
ing to  his  own  prayer :  "  Father,  I  will  that  they 
also  whom  thou  hast  given  me  be  with  me  where 
I  am."  II  But  now  his  words  are,  "  If  a  man  love 
me,  he  will  keep  my  words ;  and  my  Father  will 
love  him,  and  we  will  come  unto  him,  and  make 
our  abode  with  him."  ^ 

*  Matt,  xxviii.  20.     J  Eph.  v.  30.         I|  John  xvii.  24. 
t  2  Cor.  xiii.  5.         §  Col.  i.  18.         1  John  xiv.  23. 


158  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

No  efforts  of  the  Church,  therefore,  are  need- 
ed to  secure  that  nearness,  that  indwelling  pres- 
ence, of  her  Lord,  which  is  already  her  posses- 
sion, and  which,  if  it  only  could  be  recognized, 
would  be  an  inspiration  of  superhuman  power. 
What  the  Church  needs  is,  not  to  wait  for  some 
greater  strength,  but  to  be  conscious  of  the 
great  endowment  which  she  already  has.  She 
needs  herself  to  penetrate  more  deeply  the  deep 
meaning  of  Scripture  respecting  that  fellowship 
already  subsisting  between  herself  and  her  Lord, 
wherein  she,  being  joined  unto  him,  is  one  spirit 
with  him.  She  needs  to  ponder  till  she  feels 
the  force  of  his  own  words,  ''  I  am  the  vine,  ye 
are  the  branches  ; "  *  —  one  life,  we  must  remem- 
ber, being  in  the  vine,  and  the  same  life  perme- 
ating the  branches ;  —  "I  am  the  bread  of  life  : 
he  that  eateth  my  flesh,  and  drinketh  my  blood, 
dwelleth  in  me,  and  I  in  him  ; "  f  "  Henceforth  I 
call  you  not  servants  ;  for  the  servant  knoweth 
not  what  his  lord  doeth  :  but  I  have  called  you 

*  John  XV.  5.  t  John  vi.  56. 


A    HIGHER    CONSECRATION.  1 59 

friends  ;  for  all  things  that  I  have  heard  of  my 
Father,  I  have  made  known  unto  you."  *  These 
friends  of  Christ,  redeemed  and  renewed,  thus 
endowed  with  the  knowledge  of  the  Father, 
should  also  apprehend  the  meaning  of  those 
words  which  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Comforter, 
whom  he  sent  from  the  Father,  and  who  testi- 
fied of  him,  addresses  to  his  disciples  :  "  And 
ye  are  complete  in  him,  who  is  the  head  of  all 
principality  and  power  :  in  whom,  also,  ye  are 
circumcised  with  the  circumcision  made  without 
hands,  in  putting  off  the  body  of  the  sins  of  the 
flesh  by  the  circumcision  of  Christ :  buried  with 
him  in  baptism,  wherein  also  ye  are  risen  with 
him  through  the  faith  of  the  operation  of  God, 
who  hath  raised  him  from  the  dead.  And  you, 
being  dead  in  your  sins  and  the  uncircumcision 
of  your  flesh,  hath  he  quickened  together  with 
him,  having  forgiven  you  all  trespasses."  f  It 
is  this  blessed  and  glorious  knowledge,  it  is  the 
becoming  conscious  of  what  is  already  their  un« 

*  John  XV.  15.  t  Col.  ii.  10-13. 


l6o  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

conscious  possession,  which  shall  enable  Christ's 
people,  as  they  have  therefore  received  Christ 
Jesus  the  Lord,  so  to  walk  in  him,  "  rooted  and 
built  up  in  him,  and  stablished  in  the  faith  as 
they  have  been  taugh*-,  abounding  therein  with 
thanksgiving."  * 

The  difference  between  a  man  and  a  brute  — 
the  broad  gulf  sepai^ting  the  two,  which  no 
development  nor  evolution  can  ever  bridge  —  is 
in  the  knowledge  of  God,  which  the  man  is 
never  without,  and  which  t\-e  brute  never  pos- 
sesses. It  belongs  to  the  inalienaWc  substance 
of  the  human  soul  that  it  knows  God.  "To 
know  God,  and  to  possess  reason,"  says  Jacobi, 
"are  one  and  the  same  thing;  just  a^  not  to 
know  God,  and  be  a  brute,  are  ovic  and  ihe  same 
thing."  f  And  the  difference  betroen  a  Christian 
and  other  men  is  in  the  knowledge  of  God  in 
Christ,  —  a  knowledge  which  is  as  free  as  it  is 
full  and  all-sufficient,  and  which  all  men  JT'ight 
possess,  but  to  which  the  Christian  alon^    has 

*  Col.  ii.  7.  t  Von  den  gottlichen  Dingen. 


A   HIGHER   CONSECRATION.  l6l 

actually  attained.  "  If  our  gospel  be  hid,  it  is 
hid  to  them  that  are  lost :  in  whom  the  god  of 
this  world  hath  blinded  the  minds  of  them  which 
believe  not,  lest  the  light  of  the  glorious  gospel 
of  Christ,  who  is  the  image  of  God,  should 
shine  into  them.  .  .  .  For  God,  who  commanded 
the  light  to  shine  out  of  darkness,  hath  shined 
in  our  hearts,  to  give  the  light  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus 
Christ."  t  In  Hke  manner,  the  difference  be- 
tween the  Church  all  glowing  in  her  devo- 
tion, full  of  zeal  and  holy  energy  in  the  work 
of  her  Lord,  and  the  Church  listless  and  luke- 
warm, whom  the  faithful  and  true  witness  will 
spew  out  of  his  mouth,  is  in  the  clear  and  vital 
realization  that  the  all-glorious  One,  like  unto  the 
Son  of  man,  whom  John  saw  in  the  midst  of  the 
seven  golden  candlesticks,  was  no  unreal  vision 
or  transient  appearance,  but  the  glorious  and 
abiding  truth  of  Him  whose  eyes  were  as  a 
flame  of  fire,  and  whose  countenance  was  as  the 

t  2  Cor.  iv.  3-6. 


1 62  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

sun  shineth  in  his  strength,  and  who  is  still  in 
the  midst  of  his  Church,  Jesus  Christ,  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever. 

This  increasing  consciousness  in  the  Chris- 
tian, of  the  presence  and  the  will  of  Christ,  is 
the  index  of  the  increasing  growth  of  spiritual 
life  ;  but  spiritual  life,  like  all  other  life,  does 
not  reveal  its  ov/n  processes  of  growth.  We 
can  only  see  the  results,  and  infer  from  these 
v/hat  the  processes  are.  Carvallo,  the  Portu- 
guese botanist,  is  said  to  have  attempted,  by 
carefully  examining  with  his  microscope  a 
rapidly-growing  plant,  to  see  the  actual  pro- 
cedure of  its  growth  ;  but  the  process  was  far 
too  subtle  for  his  eyes,  with  all  the  aid  his 
glasses  could  give.  The  steady  enlargement, 
the  actually  accomplished  result,  was  all  that  he 
could  see.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  "  as  if  a 
man  should  cast  seed  into  the  ground,  and 
should  sleep,  and  rise  night  and  day,  and  the 
seed  should  spring  and  grow  up,  he  knoweth  not 
how."  * 

*  Mark  iv.  27. 


A    HIGHER   CONSECRATION.  163 

But  while  we  cannot  tell,  by  looking  within, 
how  the  consciousness  of  the  divine  fellowship 
takes  possession  of  us,  how  the  sense  of  the 
indwelling  Christ,  working  out  his  own  plans  in 
and  through  us  for  the  triumph  of  his  kingdom, 
becomes  a  fire  of  holy  zeal,  consuming  all  our 
apathy,  and  kindling  us  to  the  ardor  of  an  all 
absorbing  devotion  to  him,  we  do  know  that  this 
blessed  result  is  assured  by  looking  away  from 
ourselves  unto  him,  till  "  we  all,  with  open  face 
beholding  as  in  a  glass  the  glory  of  the  Lord, 
are  changed  into  the  same  image  from  glory  to 
glory."  * 

The  first  thing  needful,  therefore,  in  order 
that  the  Church  may  have  a  larger  sense  of  the 
magnitude  of  Christ's  own  mission,  and  of  his 
power  to  accompHsh  all  his  purpose,  and  thus, 
through  her  fellowship  with  him,  a  larger  sense, 
also,  of  her  own  mission  and  her  own  power,  is 
that  she  look  unto  him.  This  she  must  do,  if 
she  be  truly  his  Church.     It  is  her  response  to 

*  2  Cor.  iii.  18. 


164  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

his  invitation:  "Look  unto  me,  and  be  ye 
saved,"  through  which  her  life  as  his  Church 
becomes  enkindled  ;  and  it  is  only  by  her 
continually  looking  unto  him  that  the  living 
fire  upon  her  altars  can  be  kept  alive. 

But,  passing  from  such  general  considerations, 
there  are  two  particulars  towards  which  this  con- 
templation of  Christ,  this  vision  of  him,  which 
is  to  transfuse  us  with  his  spirit,  till  it  shall 
transform  us  into  his  likeness,  will  be  most 
appropriately  displayed.  The  first  is  the  all- 
sufficiency  of  his  atoning  sacrifice.  In  order  that 
we  may  find  in  his  spirit  the  undying  inspira- 
tion, the  all-conquering  motive,  to  seek  the 
world's  conversion,  we  need  to  keep  before  us 
the  great  truth,  that,  in  his  death,  the  full  provis- 
ion for  the  world's  salvation  has  been  actually 
made.  That  his  atonement  has  a  universal 
efficacy,  that  he  suffered  and  died  as  the  Re- 
deemer of  the  whole  human  race,  we  should  see, 
without  a  doubt,  to  be  the  clear  doctrine  of  the 
Bible. 


A   HIGHER   CONSECRATION.  1 65 

"  He  died  for  all."  *  "  God  was  in  Christ,  rec- 
onciling the  world  unto  himself."  f  "  Who  gave 
himself  a  ransom  for  all."  J  "  And  he  is  the  propi- 
tiation for  our  sins,  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also 
for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world."  §  "  Therefore, 
as  by  the  offence  of  one,  judgment  came  upon 
all  men  to  condemnation ;  even  so  by  the  right- 
eousness of  one,  the  free  gift  came  upon  all  men 
unto  justification  of  life."  ||  That  these  state- 
ments are  to  be  taken  in  the  largest  sense,  that 
the  all-sufficiency  of  Christ's  atonement  em- 
braces even  those  who  never  receive  it,  and  are 
consequently  lost,  is  not  only  clear  from  the  very 
idea  of  the  atonement  itself,  —  the  atonement 
being  impossible  without  a  divine  sacrifice, 
and  a  divine  sacrifice  which  has  not  a  divine 
all-sufficiency  being  inconceivable,  —  but  is  put 
beyond  all  proper  doubt  by  2  Pet.  ii.  i,  where 
the  false  teachers  who  bring  in  damnable  here- 
sies, and  bring  upon  themselves  swift  destruc- 

*  2  Cor.  V.  15.         J  I  Tim.  ii.  6.  1|  Rom.  v.  i8. 

t  Ibid.,  V.  19.  §  I  John  ii.  2. 


l66  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

tion,  are  said  to  deny  the  Lord  who  bought,  i.e., 
redeemed,  even  them.  The  difficulties  which 
some  see  in  this  doctrine,  as  though  it  impHed  a 
fruitless  work  on  the  part  of  God,  are  certainly 
no  greater  than  belong  to  the  doctrine  concern- 
ing the  Holy  Ghost,  whose  influences,  however 
adequate  in  themselves,  yet  fail  to  renew  many 
hearts  upon  which  they  are  exerted,  and  are  not 
so  great  as  belong  to  the  doctrine  which  denies 
the  universal  adequacy  of  the  work  of  Christ  or 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  We  accept  it,  therefore,  as 
the  truth  of  Scripture,  that,  while  the  living  God 
is  the  Saviour  specially  of  those  who  believe,  his 
salvation  so  truly  concerns,  and  is  so  adequate 
to  save,  even  those  who  do  not  believe  it,  that,  in 
a  true  sense,  we  may  call  him,  as  the  Bible  does, 
"  the  Saviour  of  all  men."  * 

But  if  we  accept  this  fully,  if  we  realize  its 
large  significance,  what  becomes  of  any  apa- 
thy of  ours  respecting  the  world's  conversion  ? 
I  do  not  ask  what  becomes  of  it  on  the  ground 

*  I  Tim.  iv.  lo. 


A    HIGHER   CONSECRATION.  1 6/ 

of  our  s}mpathy  with  man,  but  what  on  the 
ground  of  our  sympathy  with  Christ.  That  the 
world  is  perishing  without  Christ,  we  clearly 
see  ;  that  it  can  be  saved  through  him,  and  only 
through  him,  is  all  apparent :  but  this  is  not  the 
great  motive  which  urges  us  to  efforts  for  the 
world's  conversion.  Sympathy  with  the  world 
in  its  wretchedness  and  woe  is  a  feeble  and 
flickering  fire,  which  expires  in  its  own  burning. 
Man  is  not,  can  not  be,  the  savior  of  man ;  and 
the  evidence  is  all-abounding  that  he  would  not 
if  he  could  be.  Not  the  love  of  man,  but  the 
love  of  Christ,  and  not  our  love  to  Christ,  but 
Christ's  love  to  us,  is  the  constraining  motive  of 
the  Christian.  *'  Because  we  thus  judge,  that,  if 
one  died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead  "  (or,  rather, 
then  all  died,  —  died  in  respect  to  their  own 
strength  and  sufficiency),  "and  that  he  died  for 
all,  that  they  which  live  "  (they  which  live  in  the 
new  life  which  he  imparts)  "  should  henceforth 
not  live  unto  themselves,  but  unto  him  which 
died  for  them,  and  rose  again."  *     Brethren,  let 

*  2  Cor.  V.  14,  15. 


l6$  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

this  same  mind  be  in  you  which  was  also  in 
Christ  Jesus.  Did  he  die  for  the  world  ?  Is  the 
provision  in  his  death  adequate  for  the  salvation 
of  all  men  ?  Then,  where  is  the  heart  united  to 
him,  quickened  by  his  life,  which  is  not  also  in- 
spired by  his  love  for  souls  for  whom  he  died  ? 
The  wants  of  the  world,  the  wretchedness  and 
woes  of  men,  unable  of  themselves  to  move  us, 
become  now  the  fuel  to  feed  the  fire  which  he 
has  enkindled ;  and,  while  we  love  God  only  be- 
cause he  first  loved  us,  we  learn  also  to  know, 
out  of  our  full  experience,  "  that  he  who  loveth 
God  will  love  his  brother  also."  *  Here,  then, 
we  must  come  for  our  inspiration.  The  cross 
of  Christ  must  move  us  towards  the  conversion 
of  the  world,  if  we  are  ever  moved.  And  it 
will  move  us,  it  cannot  help  moving  us,  if  we 
are  only  by  its  side.  If  forgiveness  of  sin  have 
an}"  meaning  to  us,  if  there  be  to  us  any  pre- 
ciousness  in  the  blood  of  Christ,  we  must  tell  it 
for  Christ's  sake  to  all  around ;  and  our  eager- 

*  I  John  iv.  21. 


A   HIGHER   CONSECRATION.  1 69 

ness  in  proclaiming  it  will  be  just  in  proportion 
to  the  power  with  which  we  have  felt  its  appli- 
cation. It  was  in  view  of  his  cross,  it  was  in 
reference  to  the  death  he  should  die,  that  the 
Son  of  man  exclaimed, "  Now  is  the  judgment 
of  this  world :  now  shall  the  prince  of  this  world 
be  cast  out."  *  And  it  is  in  the  vision  of  the  same 
cross,  overshadowing  and  absorbing  us,  that  we, 
crucified  with  Christ,  have  such  a  fellowship 
with  him,  that  it  is  no  longer  we  who  live,  but 
Christ  who  liveth  in  us,  f  —  we  taking  up  his 
purposes,  and  entering  into  his  self-forgetting 
sacrifice  to  save  men,  while  he  dwells  within  us, 
and  endows  us  with  his  strength  for  the  final 
victory. 

But  there  is  another  motive  still.  The  dying 
Redeemer  is  the  risen  Lord,  who  commands  his 
disciples  to  go  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  his 
gospel  to  every  creature.  These  are  his  last 
words,  which  should  not,  however,  be  regarded 
altogether  in  the  light  of    a    command  :    they 

*  John  xii.  31.  t  Gal.  ii.  20. 

15 


I/O  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

are  a  benediction  as  well.  The  uplifted  hands 
with  which  the  risen  Lord  blessed  his  disciples 
as  he  was  parted  from  them,  and  a  cloud  re- 
ceived him  out  of  their  sight,*  are  no  more  a 
token  of  grace  than  are  these  most  blessed 
words  ;  for  in  them  He  who  must  now  reign 
till  he  hath  put  all  enemies  under  his  feet  f 
associates  his  disciples  with  himself  in  his  tri- 
umph. His  great  work  becomes  thus  also 
theirs.  They  become  thus  ambassadors  for 
Christ,  by  whom  God  beseeches  men,J  workers 
together  with  him,  that  men  may  receive  not 
the  grace  of  God  in  vain,  §  ministers  of  the 
new  testament,  ||  and  laborers  together  with  God.^ 
But  what  a  dignity  is  this !  What  an  exaltation 
of  privilege  !  What  an  incitement  to  all  energy 
of  endeavor  in  this  association  of  the  redeemed 
disciples  with  their  risen  Lord !  As  the  igno- 
rance and  doubts  and  gloom  and  vacillation  of 
the   early   disciples   were  exchanged    for   clear 

*  Luke  XXI V.  50  ;  Acts  i.  9-     J  2  Cor.  v.  20.     ||  2  Cor.  iii.  6. 
t  I  Cor.  XV.  25.  §  Ibid.,  vi.  i.       ^  i  Cor.  iii.  9. 


A    HIGHER    CONSECRATION.  I7I 

assurance,  and  joyful  hope,  and  unswerving 
devotion  to  their  crucified  Master,  by  his 
resurrection  from  the  dead,  the  same  revelation 
of  himself  to  us  —  a  revelation  which,  by  the  gift 
of  the  Spirit  and  the  subsequent  history  of  the 
Church,  is  to  the  soul  that  deeply  ponders  it 
more  clear  and  full  than  was  possible  to  the  dis- 
ciples who  only  discerned  the  bodily  presence  of 
their  Lord  —  will  banish  all  our  uncertainty  and 
apathy,  and  quicken  our  faith  and  hope  and  love 
with  a  devotion  to  Christ  which  will  not  waver, 
and  a  joy  in  his  fellowship  which  cannot  be 
quelled. 

Here,  then,  is  our  motive,  the  grand  and 
ever-inspiring  motive,  —  our  dying  and  risen  and 
all  victorious  Saviour.  Not  the  wants  of  men, 
but  the  work  of  Christ,  not  the  wretchedness  of 
the  world,  but  the  will  of  the  world's  Redeemer, 
who  is  our  Lord,  whose  will,  regnant  over  ours, 
makes  us  willing  in  the  day  of  its  power,  —  this 
is  our  undying  inspiration,  v/hereby  our  words 
become  the  echo,  and  our  works  the  fulfilment, 


1/2  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

of  his  exulting  cry :  "  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted 
up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto 
me."  * 

*  John  xii.  32. 


SERMON. 

THE   RESURRECTION    OF   CHRIST   THE    JUSTIFICA- 
TION   OF   MISSIONS. 

**  And  was  raised  again  for  our  justification."  —  Rom.  iv.  25. 

The  resurrection  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
from  the  dead  is  undoubtedly  set  forth  in  the 
New  Testament  as  a  Uteral  truth.  It  is  equally 
clear,  that  the  New-Testament  writers,  whether 
deceived  or  not  themselves,  had  no  intention  of 
deceiving  others.  They  tell  what  they  thought, 
at  least,  was  the  truth  about  their  Lord.  That 
he  died  upon  the  cross,  was  buried,  and  rose 
again  the  third  day,  and  appeared  to  many,  the 
same  Jesus  which  was  crucified,  is  now  admitted 
—  alike  by  the  most  intelligent  enemies  of  the 
gospel,  as  well  as  by  its  friends  —  to  have  been 
the  belief  of   his  original  disciples.     The  most 

15*  «73 


1/4  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

noted,  and  perhaps  the  ablest,  of  recent  writers 
against  the  Christian  faith  —  Strauss,  in  his 
"  New  Life  of  Jesus  "  —  fully  allows  ''  that  the 
disciples  firmly  believed  that  Jesus  had  arisen."  * 
He  declares  it  to  be  "  quite  evident,  that  the 
origin  of  the  Christian  Church  was  by  faith  in 
the  miraculous  resurrection  of  the  Messiah  ;  and 
that  the  disciples  received  an  impression  which 
lay  at  the  bottom  of  their  future  ministry,  that 
he  was  a  conqueror  over  death  and  the  grave, 
and  was  the  Prince  of  life."  f  The  supposi- 
tion that  the  disciples  fabricated  the  story,  and 
sought  to  impose  it  upon  the  credulity  of  men, 
themselves  knowing  it  to  be  false,  may,  there- 
fore, be  dismissed,  as  no  longer  needing  a  reply. 
But,  if  the  disciples  believed  what  they  said, 
how  could  they  have  been  mistaken.?  The  evi- 
dence which  wrought  this  belief  was  of  a  sort 
easily  tested.  It  lay  in  the  sphere  of  their 
most  common  and  most  undoubted  capacity  of 
judging.  It  did  not  follow  their  preconceived 
*  Vol.  i.  p.  399.  t  Ibid.,  p.  412. 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  1/5 

potions ;  for  the  first  announcement  that  Christ 
had  arisen  seemed  to  them  an  idle  tale,  and 
they  believed  it  not.*  It  was  not  begotten  of 
their  desires  or  hopes  ;  for  they  were  utterly 
cast  down  by  the  crucifixion,  and  their  only 
dreams  of  the  Messiah  had  been  of  an  earthly 
and  temporal  prince  and  kingdom,  f  Their 
belief  was  not  sudden,  nor  did  it  grow  rapidly, 
rhey  sifted  all  the  evidence,  which  they  finally 
accepted,  only  because  they  found  it  irresistible. 
During  a  period  of  forty  days  from  the  cruci- 
fixion, Jesus  is  reported  to  have  appeared  to 
them,  and  to  others  who  knew  him  well,  at 
times  so  numerous,  and  under  circumstances  so 
various,  that  all  doubts  among  them,  though 
they  were  strong,  and  seemed  likely  to  be  per- 
sistent, were  destroyed.  He  appeared  unto  the 
eleven  as  they  sat  at  meat,  and  upbraided  them 
with  their  unbelief  and  hardness  of  heart,  be- 
cause they  believed  not  them  which  had  seen 
him  after  he  was  risen.  J  In  the  midst  of  their 
*  Luke  xxiv.  ii.      t  Luke  xxiv.  21.      J  Mark  xvi.  14. 


176  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

terror  and  affright  at  an  event  so  amazing,  he  re- 
assured them  by  the  most  palpable  proof  of  his 
living  and  bodily  presence  with  them.  "  Behold 
my  hands  and  my  feet,"  he  said,  "that  it  is  I 
myself:  handle  me,  and  see;  for  a  spirit  hath 
not  flesh  and  bones,  as  ye  see  me  have.  And, 
when  he  had  thus  spoken,  he  showed  them  his 
hands  and  his  feet."  *  To  the  doubting  Thomas 
he  said,  "  Reach  hither  thy  finger,  and  behold 
my  hands ;  and  reach  hither  thy  hand,  and 
thrust  it  into  my  side :  and  be  not  faithless,  but 
believing."!  He  is  said  to  have  shown  "him- 
self alive  after  his  passion  by  many  infallible 
proofs,  being  seen  of  them  forty  days,  and  speak- 
ing of  the  things  pertaining  to  the  kingdom  of 
God."  J  The  apostles  became  convinced  of  the 
great  truth  slowly;  and  they  all  became  con- 
vinced of  it  in  the  same  degree  of  undoubting 
confidence.  No  one  of  them,  though  persecuted, 
and  at  length  martyred  for  his  faith,  ever  after- 
wards doubted  that  his  crucified  Lord,  in  very 

*  Luke  xxiv.  39,  40.        t  John  xx.  27.        J  Acts  i.  3. 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  1/7 

deed  and  truth,  had  risen  from  the  dead.  More- 
over, others  believed  the  same  thing.  Paul,  writ- 
ing to  the  Corinthian  church,  some  twenty-five 
years  afterwards,  refers  to  five  hundred  witnesses 
by  whom  the  living  Lord  was  seen  at  once,  the 
greater  part  of  whom,  he  says,  remain  unto  this 
present,  and  are  therefore  vouchers  for  the  fact. 
Now  this  belief,  thus  honestly  and  confidently 
held,  and  by  such  large  numbers  of  those  most 
competent  to  judge  respecting  it,  is  unaccountable 
on  any  other  supposition  than  that  it  was  justi- 
fied by  the  truth.  To  suppose  that  Jesus  did 
not  die,  but  only  swooned  upon  the  cross,  and 
that  he  was  laid  in  the  tomb  in  a  state  of  uncon- 
sciousness, from  which  he  afterwards  revived, 
and  then  came  forth  and  re-appeared  to  his  disci- 
ples in  his  natural  life,  rouses  far  more  difficult 
questions  than  it  answers,  and,  though  once 
gravely  put  forth,  is  now  ridiculed  even  by  those 
who  disbelieve  in  a  miraculous  resurrection. 
For  how  could  he  come  fort  h  ?  and  what  became 
of  him  afterwards  .'*  and  how  could  such  a  per- 


1/8  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

son,  weak  as  he  must  have  been,  have  given  his 
disciples  their  undoubting  conviction  that  he 
was  the  conqueror  of  death  ?  To  suppose  that 
any  one  should  have  succeeded,  even  should 
any  one  have  attempted,  to  personate  to  the  dis- 
ciples their  Master  and  Friend,  whom  they  had 
known  and  loved  and  companied  with  so  inti- 
mately and  so  long,  would  be  an  improbability 
more  wonderful  by  far  than  the  literal  truth  of 
the  story  which  they  relate.  Such  a  deception 
would  require  a  miracle.  It  is  just  as  improba- 
ble that  all  the  disciples  could  have  come  to 
believe,  by  a  sort  of  hallucination,  through 
nervous  excitement,  in  some  unreal  vision  of 
Christ's  appearance.*  Such  a  vision  might 
come  to  a  single  person.  Individuals  are  liable 
to  hallucinations,  which  carry  with  them  all  the 
force  of  reality ;  but  this  is  never  the  case  with  a 
class  possessing  such  different  temperaments  as 
the  apostles,  and  having  naturally  such  different 
ways  of  looking  at  any  thing.     Physiology  puts 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  1 79 

its  inexorable  bar  in  the  way  of  a  theory  which 
attempts  to  account  for  the  same  conviction  in 
the  sanguine  Peter,  and  the  choleric  Paul,  and 
the  melancholic  John,  through  nervous  excite- 
ment. Nervous  excitement  in  men  so  different, 
if  we  could  conceive  it  to  be  able  to  delude  them 
all  with  subjective  states  which  had  no  reality, 
would  have,  not  the  same,  but  very  different, 
manifestations.  The  apostles,  however,  had  all 
of  them  the  same  belief,  that  Jesus  rose  from 
the  dead.  They  all  believed  that  they  had  seen 
him,  and  talked  with  him,  and  touched  him  again 
and  again,  after  they  had  seen  him  crucified,  and 
dead  and  buried.  Instead  of  being  formed  out 
of  their  subjective  states,  this  belief,  as  we  have 
seen,  contradicted  all  their  prejudices.  Still 
further,  if  they  were  all  so  ready  to  be  imposed 
upon  by  fancied  visions,  how  was  it  that  they 
held  the  first  announcement  of  the  resurrection 
by  the  women  to  be  an  idle  tale  ?  or  how  could 
Mary  believe  that  the  risen  Saviour  was  the  gar- 
dener, or,  again,  that  the  gardener  was  the  risen 


l80  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

Saviour?  or  how  could  the  two  who  walked 
with  him  to  Emmaus  take  an  unknown  man  to 
be  him,  or  talk  so  long  with  him,  and  still  think 
him  a  stranger?  or  how  could  the  assembled 
disciples  have  trembled  before  him,  instead  of 
rejoicing  at  his  appearance  ?  or  how  could  they 
have  needed  to  be  convinced  of  the  reality  of 
his  resurrection,  by  his  partaking  of  their  meal, 
and  showing  them  the  marks  of  his  wounds  ?  * 
No,  no.  There  are  no  traces  of  delusion,  any 
more  than  of  dishonesty,  in  this  narrative.  The 
accounts  given  us  are  sober  statements  by  sober 
and  trustworthy  men.  If  ever  there  was  clear 
and  credible  testimony  to  a  literal  fact,  we  have 
it  here. 

But  there  are  many  men  unwilling,  and  per- 
haps unable,  to  weigh  considerately  the  argu- 
ment for  the  truth  of  Christ's  resurrection, 
having  the  preconceived  opinion  that  it  cannot 
be  true,  because  of  the  miracle  which  it  involves. 
It  is   one   of    the    curious    phases    of    modern 

*    Lange,  Life  of  Christ,  vol.  v.  p.  120. 


THE    RESURRECTION   OF    CHRIST.  l8l 

opinion,  that  men  who  are  foremost  in  their 
demand  for  actual  facts,  and  in  their  defence  of 
the  Baconian  method,  —  which  requires  that  all 
prejudices  be  removed,  and  the  actual  facts  of 
observation  be  accepted,  whatever  they  may  be, 
—  should  also,  when  the  fact  of  a  miracle  is  in 
question,  be  equally  forward  to  deny  it,  because 
a  certain  theory  of  Nature,  which  they  have  come 
to  entertain,  makes  a  miracle  impossible.  Now, 
such  a  theory  not  only  contradicts  the  true 
method  of  scientific  inquiry,  but  it  contradicts 
itself,  as  can  be  seen  by  any  one  whose  eyes  are 
clear.  For  to  say  that  a  miracle  is  impossible, 
because  contrary  to  the  facts  of  my  experience, 
is  absurd,  unless  the  facts  of  my  experience  em- 
brace all  the  possible  facts  of  any  experience ; 
to  claim  which  would  be  a  greater  absurdity 
still.  Again :  to  say  that  no  such  fact  as  a 
miracle  can  be,  because  certain  other  facts, 
which  I  have  learned  from  this  source  and  that, 
and  which  I  am  pleased  to  call  "the  order  oi 
Nature,"  forbid  it,  leads  one  to  ask  for  a  more 

i6 


1 82  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

precise  designation  of  this  order  of  Nature,  and 
for  the  proof  that  it  actually  exists.  This  proof 
must  either  rest  within,  or  must  reach  beyond, 
the  field  of  our  experience  ;  that  is,  it  must  be  a 
proof  to  which  our  experience  actually  testifies, 
or  one  respecting  which  our  experience  has  no 
witness  whatever.  But  our  experience,  at  the 
farthest,  only  testifies  to  that  which  is,  and  never 
reaches  to  that  which  can  be.  If  my  experience 
contain  nothing  miraculous,  I  may,  of  course, 
deny  the  existence  of  a  miracle  so  far  as  my 
experience  reaches ;  and  if  my  judgments  rest 
only  on  what  I  have  experienced,  that  is,  if  they 
be  only  inferences  from  what  I  actually  see,  I 
am  not  entitled  to  make  any  affirmations  re- 
specting what  lies  beyond  ;  and  that  a  miracle 
has  not  taken  place  in  another  experience  than 
my  own,  is  quite  out  of  my  province  to  say. 
The  moment  I  make  such  a  sweeping  assertion 
as  to  affirm  or  deny  any  thing  universal,  I  must 
leave  the  ground  of  my  experience,  which  is 
necessarily   partial    and    limited,    a' ad   take  my 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  1 83 

Stand  on  a  basis  back  of  experience,  and  reach- 
ing beyond  it.  But  such  a  groundwork  lies  also 
back  of  Nature,  and  inevitably  leads  the  thought 
into  the  living  presence  of  the  supernatural. 
Our  natural  science  is  fond  of  its  generaliza- 
tions ;  but  no  generalization  is  possible  without 
the  supernatural.  It  is  an  unmeaning  babble 
to  talk  of  comprehensive  laws,  unless  there  be  a 
comprehending  Reason  and  Will,  whose  ideas 
and  plans  these  laws  express.  The  current 
notion,  in  some  quarters,  that  we  can  gain,  or 
have,  perchance,  got,  such  universal  conclusions, 
that  Nature  can  be  shut  in  upon  itself,  and  God 
shut  out,  is  exactly  the  absurdity  of  supposing 
that  we  see  when  we  have  closed  our  eyes,  and 
turned  the  very  light  of  all  our  seeing  into 
darkness.  Every  process  of  the  human  mind 
bears  witness  to  the  divine  Mind.  Every 
thought  we  can  have  of  Nature,  when  profoundly 
questioned,  is  seen  to  rest  upon  the  knowledge, 
undoubting  and  universal,  that  Nature  has  its 
living  Author,  its  spiritual  Creator.     But  cannot 


184  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

he  who  has  made  Nature  also  unmake  it  if  he 
will,  or  order  in  it  whatever  changes  he  may 
please  ?  And  if  men  who  did  not  like  to  retain 
God  in  their  thoughts,  professing  themselves  to 
be  wise,  became  fools,  because  that,  when  they 
knew  God,  they  glorified  him  not  as  God,  neither 
were  thankful,  but  became  vain  in  their  imagina- 
tions, and  their  foolish  hearts  were  darkened, 
what  is  to  hinder  him,  if  his  love  impels  it,  from 
making  such  changes  in  Nature  as  shall  more 
conspicuously  manifest  himself,  and  more  glori- 
ously carry  forward  the  eternal  purpose  for 
which  he  hath  created  all  things  by  Jesus 
Christ  ?  Such  changes  are  miracles.  They  are 
not  contradictions  to  Nature ;  but  they  are  the 
carrying  of  Nature  upward  to  a  higher  plane, 
and  onward  to  grander  results  than  Nature  in  its 
unhindered  action  alone  could  reach.  They  are 
not  to  be  considered  as  violations  of  the  order 
of  Nature  :  rather  are  they  the  cropping-out  in 
Nature  of  the  higher  order  of  the  supernatural, 
without  which    the   so-called  order  of    Nature 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  1 85 

would  be  but  an  empty  chaos.  They  are  rifts 
in  the  clouds  of  the  earth's  atmosphere,  through 
which  the  glories  of  the  heavens,  which  make 
the  clouds  resplendent  and  the  earth  radiant, 
can  shine.  They  are  not  the  new  development 
of  some  old  force  which  had  been  in  Nature  from 
the  beginning  ;  but  they  are  a  new  creation, 
by  which  new  forces,  henceforth  to  work  on 
in  harmony  with  the  old,  are  added  to  these. 
Surely  such  changes  are  possible  for  God  to 
make.  Surely  He  who  hath  created  once  can 
do  it  also  again.  Surely,  if  the  inspiration  of 
genius  may  sometimes  Ught  up  the  human  face 
with  a  glow  which  shows  the  glory  of  the  soul 
beyond  all  ordinary  thoughts  ;  if  the  light  of 
love  may  sometimes  lend  a  lustre  to  the  eye, 
through  which  there  shines  a  look  of  beauty 
before  unknown,  —  much  more  may  the  aspect 
of  the  things  which  are  made,  in  which  the 
eternal  power  and  Godhead  of  their  Maker 
have,  from  the  creation  of  the  world,  been 
clearly  seen,  take  on  some  altogether  new 
16* 


1 86  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

expression,  and  become  radiant  with  a  glory  all 
undiscovered  before,  when  he  would  reveal 
through  them,  also,  his  forgiving  and  renewing 
love.  Surely  all  this  is  possible  ;  and  miracles, 
instead  of  being  irrational  and  inconceivable, 
are  the  very  beauty  of  reason,  and  the  very  light 
of  our  thoughts  respecting  Nature,  when  they 
are  correctly  apprehended.  Creation  itself  is 
a  miracle.  The  most  recent  science,  in  pro- 
found mathematical  demonstrations  respecting 
the  mechanical  theory  of  heat,  has  shown,  on 
scientific  grounds  alone,  the  need  of  some 
higher  power  than  Nature,  in  order  to  its 
origination  ;  and  therefore  miracles  cannot  be 
impossible  at  any  stage  of  Nature's  continuance. 
The  only  proper  attitude  towards  this  ques- 
tion, and  the  only  truly  scientific  method,  is  to 
inquire  whether  such  occurrences  have  actually 
taken  place,  —  an  inquiry  whose  answer  is  only 
to  be  gained  through  a  careful  sifting  of  the  evi- 
dence which  declares  them  If  we  find  wonders 
reported,  which  turn  out  to  be  no  miracles,  but 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  18/ 

only  delusions  of  witchcraft  or  magic,  these  no 
more  militate  against  the  reality  of  miracles  than 
does  an  abundance  of  counterfeits  against  the 
reality  of  genuine  coin.  If  we  find  some  mira- 
cles reported  for  which  the  evidence  fails,  this  no 
more  precludes  our  finding  others  of  undoubted 
verity  than  do  false  statements  in  other  matters 
prevent  us  from  learning  any  thing  true.  Let 
the  quality  of  the  reported  miracle  and  its  evi- 
dence be  sifted  to  the  utmost ;  and,  while  we 
reject  nothing  from  preconceived  scepticism,  let 
nothing  be  taken  in  credulous  superstition.  Let 
the  eye  be  open  and  clear,  and  the  heart  recep- 
tive, and  responsive  only  to  the  truth  ;  and,  if 
miracles  are  proved  by  sufficient  testimony  to 
have  taken  place,  the  wise  man  will  accept 
them,  and  follow  their  conclusions,  whatever 
they  may  be. 

Setting  aside  then,  as  we  should,  all  our  prej  li- 
dices  and  narrow  notions,  and  looking  for  the 
true  fact  alone,  with  a  single  willingness  to 
receive  it,  the  evidence  for  the  resurrection  of 


I  88  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

Christ  becomes  overwhelming.  It  has  been 
so  from  the  first.  It  convinced  the  apostles, 
though  prejudiced  against  it,  and  receiving  it 
very  slowly ;  and  they  maintained  their  faith 
through  ignominy  and  persecution,  and  in  the 
face  of  death  itself.  It  convinced  the  people  to 
whom  it  was  first  preached,  and  who  had  every 
opportunity  to  test  its  truth.  The  proof  is  clear 
beyond  all  doubt,  that  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
was  believed  in  Jerusalem  itself,  by  thousands 
who  had  probably  seen  and  certainly  knew  of 
his  crucifixion,  and  who  were  led  to  believe  that 
he  had  risen  from  the  dead,  by  the  irresistible 
evidence  with  which  the  fact  was  attested.  It 
has  convinced  candid  and  thoughtful  men  in  all 
subsequent  time,  wherever  the  evidence  has 
been  examined,  and  no  prejudices  have  been 
allowed  to  weaken  its  force.  There  is  no  his- 
torical fact  whose  literal  truth  is  more 
thoroughly  established  than  this. 

The   place   which   this   truth   holds    in    the 
scheme  of  Christian  doctrine  is  very  clear.     The 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  1 89 

resurrection  of  Christ  was  a  divine  seal  set  upon 
his  work.  It  was  the  divine  confirmation  of  all 
his  words.  He  was  declared  to  be  the  Son  of 
God  with  power,  according  to  the  spirit  of  holi- 
ness, by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead.  The 
declaration  of  his  Messiahship  is  accomplished 
in  his  resurrection.  "  The  promise  which  was 
made  unto  the  fathers,"  says  Paul,  that  is,  the 
promise  of  the  Messiah,  "  God  hath  fulfilled  unto 
us  their  children,  in  that  he  hath  raised  up  Jesus 
again  ;  as  it  is  also  written  in  the  second  psalm, 
Thou  art  my  Son,  this  day  have  I  begotten 
thee."  In  his  incarnation  and  life  upon  the 
earth,  there  is  the  manifested  presence  of  God, 
condescending  to  dwell  with  man.  In  his  mira- 
cles, in  his  teachings,  in  his  sufferings,  and  in 
his  death,  the  divine  power  and  wisdom  and 
righteousness  and  love  shine  all  gloriously.  In 
them  all,  there  stands  revealed  Immanucl,  God 
with  us,  cheering  and  strengthening  us  by  his 
sympathy  and  manifold  bounty,  but  humbling 
us  also,  as  he  makes  manifest  our  defilement  by 


IQO  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

the  revelation  of  his  purity  and  condescension 
and  self-forgetting  love.  But  in  his  resurrection 
we  come  to  know  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who,  though  he  was  rich,  became  poor, 
that  we,  through  his  poverty,  might  become  rich. 
It  is  not  simply  God  dwelling  with  man,  but 
man  lifted  to  an  eternal  fellowship  with  God, 
which  we  here  behold.  In  his  life,  even  to  his 
death,  there  is  a  constant  conflict  waged  for  us 
against  foes  aiming  at  our  destruction,  and 
whose  destroying  fury  we  had  no  means  to 
restrain ;  but  whether  the  conflict  is  of  any 
avail  for  us,  whether  he  is  victorious  or  van- 
quished at  its  close,  who  can  tell  ?,  The  dark- 
ened sun,  and  quaking  earth,  and  rending  rocks, 
tell  the  terrors  of  the  struggle  and  its  awful  im- 
port ;  but,  when  he  dies  upon  the  cross,  who, 
afterwards,  can  speak  of  life  or  salvation  ?  Can 
he  save  others,  when  himself  he  cannot  save  .'* 
But  when  it  was  not  possible  for  him  to  be 
holden  of  death,  when  he  rises  from  the  dead, 
death  having  no  more  dominion  over  him,  we 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  19I 

rise  with  him,  also  victorious  over  death  ;  and 
the  behever  in  Jesus  makes  the  triumphant 
challenge,  Who  is  he  that  condemneth,  since 
Christ  who  has  died  is  rather  risen  again,  who  is 
even  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  who  also  maketh 
intercession  for  us  ?  "  O  death,  where  is  thy 
sting  ?  O  grave,  where  is  thy  victory  ?  Thanks 
be  to  God,  which  giveth  us  the  victory  through 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

In  his  death,  the  chastisement  of  our  peace 
was  upon  him;  but  without  his  resurrection  who 
could  ever  know  that  with  his  stripes  we  are 
healed  ?  He  died  for  sinners,  whose  curse  he 
bore  ;  he  rose  again  for  sinners,  whose  justifi- 
cation he  has  now  become.  In  his  crucifixion, 
He,  in  whom  was  no  sin,  was  made  sin  for  us ; 
but  through  his  resurrection,  we,  in  whom  is  no 
righteousness,  find  righteousness  in  him.  For 
"we  believe  on  Him  that  raised  up  Jesus  our 
Lord  from  the  dead,  who  was  delivered  for  our 
offences,  and  was  raised  again  for  our  justifi- 
cation" 


192  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

The  ascendency  which  this  truth  was  able 
to  gain  over  the  lives  of  the  apostles  illustrates 
the  impulse  which  it  ever  gives  to  Christian 
activity  in  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  of  Christ. 
When  Christ  was  apprehended,  they  were  terror- 
stricken  ;  and  they  all  forsook  him,  and  fled. 
When  he  was  put  to  death,  they  were  appalled. 
But  there  never  was  a  bolder  set  of  men  than 
these  same  timid  disciples,  after  they  began  to 
preach  the  resurrection  of  their  Master.  All 
their  timidity  and  irresolution  disappear.  Their 
dismay  gives  place  to  a  joyous  exultation. 
Scorn,  hatred,  persecution,  martyrdom,  have  no 
terrors  for  them  now.  These  men,  who  seemed 
settling  down  into  the  night  of  an  unbroken 
despondency,  now  stand  out  in  the  noontide  of 
all  courage  and  hope  and  endurance,  ready  to 
face  any  difficulty,  and  flinch  at  no  dangers. 
This  great  change  was  wrought  in  them  wholly 
by  the  belief  that  Jesus,  their  Lord,  was  risen 
from  the  dead.  This  belief  all  absorbs  them. 
They  can  talk  and  think  of  nothing  else.     They 


THE   RESURRECTION   OF    CHRIST.  I93 

begin  to  preach ;  and  their  one  topic  is  Jesus 
and  his  resurrection.  He  died,  and  he  rose 
again,  they  everywhere  proclaim.  All  their 
views  of  Christ  and  his  doctrine  take  tone  from 
this  belief.  Their  narrow  notion  of  the  Messiah, 
who  was  to  restore  again  the  kingdom  to  Israel, 
drops  off  like  the  hull  from  the  germinating 
seed ;  while,  with  a  living  power,  the  doctrine 
grows  to  an  all-comprehending  vision  of  the 
Redeemer  and  Saviour  of  mankind,  in  whom  we 
have  redemption  through  his  blood,  even  the 
forgiveness  of  sins.  The  mourner  in  Geth- 
semane,  and  the  martyr  upon  Calvary,  by  his 
resurrection,  rises  before  them,  no  longer  a  suf- 
ferer or  a  victim,  but  as  the  Lord  of  life,  who 
hath  tasted  death  for  every  man,  and  who,  for 
the  suffering  of  death,  is  crowned  with  glory 
and  honor.  They  gain  their  hope  of  eternal 
life  through  his  resurrection.  "  Blessed  be  the 
God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  they 
say,  "which  according  to  his  abundant  mercy 
hath  begotten  us  again  unto  a  lively  hope,  by 

«7 


194  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

the  resurrection  of  jesus  Christ  from  the  dead." 
They  rest  every  thing  upon  this  great  truth. 
"  If  Christ  be  not  risen,"  they  say,  "  then  is  our 
preaching  vain,  and  your  faith  is  also  vain." 

He  zvas  raised  agai?t  for  our  justification. 
The  resurrection  of  Christ,  my  brethren,  has  a 
further  influence  upon  us  than  simply  to  secure 
our  personal  acceptance  with  God.  We  have 
seen,  that,  to  the  apostles,  it  became  a  living 
inspiration  to  the  highest  activity  in  the  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel  of  their  Lord.  If  truly  appre- 
hended, it  will  become  the  same  to  us.  It  was 
the  risen  Lord  who  gave  the  great  commission 
to  his  disciples  :  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and 
preach  the  gospel  unto  every  creature ; "  and 
the  perpetual  justification  and  inspiration  for 
this  grand  work  is,  that  Jesus  died,  and  rose 
again.  It  is  the  risen  and  ever-living  Lord 
who  is  with  his  disciples  alway,  "  even  unto  the 
end  of  the  world,"  giving  them  all  power  to 
preach  repentance  and  remission  of  sins,  through 
his  name,  among  all  nations. 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  1 95 

All  the  meditation  we  can  give  upon  the  cru- 
cifixion of  Christ  furnishes  food  for  the  spiritual 
life.  We  need  not  cease  to  contemplate  the 
cross.  "We  should  think  often  of  Gcthsemane 
and  Calvary,  the  bloody  sweat,  and  bitter 
shame,  and  cruel  death  ;  and  should  grow  in 
penitence  and  humbleness  and  love,  when  we 
remember  why  it  is  that  He  who  was  so  rich 
became  so  poor.  But  it  is  not  the  highest  type 
of  the  Christian  experience  that  lingers  always 
at  the  cross.  He  who  was  delivered  for  our 
offences  was  raised  again  for  our  justification. 
The  open  sepulchre  that  he  has  left  ;  the 
preaching  of  the  angels,  that  he  has  risen  from 
the  dead ;  and  the  showing  of  himself  to  his 
disciples,  whom  he  constituted  the  witnesses  of 
his  resurrection,  and  commissioned  to  declare 
it  to  his  Church,  —  this  is  the  cheering  truth  by 
which  we  gain  the  answer  of  a  good  conscience 
towards  God,  and  become  able  to  walk  in  new- 
ness of  life,  knowing,  that,  if  we  were  planted 
together  in  the  likeness  of  his  death,  w^e  shall 
be  also  in  the  likeness  of  his  resurrection. 


196  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

In  like  manner,  we  are  in  no  danger  of  hold 
ing  up  too  prominently  before  the  world  the 
atoning  sacrifice  and  death  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  The  banner  of  the  Captain  of  our  sal- 
vation is  the  banner  of  the  cross ;  but  He  who 
leads  the  hosts  of  his  elect  in  their  triumphant 
progress,  and  who  gives  them  all  their  strength 
for  the  struggle  and  the  victory,  is  the  risen 
Saviour,  the  Lord,  their  righteousness  ;  no  lon- 
ger in  his  humiliation,  but  now  glorified,  with  all 
power  given  unto  him  in  heaven  and  in  earth, 
and  who  is  with  his  disciples  as  they  fulfil  his 
great  commission,  alway,  "  even  unto  the  end  of 
the  world."  The  resurrection  of  Christ,  which 
turned  the  sorrows  of  his  first  disciples  into  joy, 
is  the  perpetual  witness  of  his  all-victorious 
power.  Though,  when  we  look  upon  the  world, 
its  sin  and  wretchedness  are  so  dark  and  terri- 
ble and  wide  reaching,  that  there  seems  no  room 
for  hope,  and  thoughtful  and  loving  souls, 
brooding  over  tlie  ills  around  them,  give  up  aU 
for  lost ;  yet  when  the  vision  of  the  victorious 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  I97 

Redeemer  rises  upon  us,  and  we  see  the  com 
pleteness  of  his  conquest  over  sin  and  death  and 
the  grave,  the  greatness  of  his  purpose,  and  the 
glory  of  his  power  to  save,  shine  all  resplendent ; 
and  the  sorrow  which  abideth  for  a  night  gives 
place  to  the  joy  which  cometh  in  the  morning. 
The  light  which  shines  from  his  sepulchre 
drives  away  the  darkness  which  hung  around 
his  cross,  while  the  cross  becomes  luminous 
with  a  glory  which  can  irradiate  the  world. 

When  we  see  his  resurrection,  we  learn,  also, 
how  it  is  that  his  crucifixion  becomes  the  crisis 
of  the  world's  history,  that  his  cross  becomes 
his  throne,  before  which  and  by  which  the 
prince  of  this  world  is  cast  out ;  and  with 
believing  hope  we  hear  and  echo  his  exulting 
cry,  "  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth, 
will  draw  all  men  unto  me." 

This  gospel  of  the  resurrection  of  our  Lord 
needs  to  be  preached  everywhere ;  not  only  as 
an  encouragement  and  inspiration  to  the  activi- 
ty of  his  Church,  but  as  a  corrective  to  all  the 
17* 


198  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

false  views  of  the  world  regarding  him.  The 
literal  truth  of  his  resurrection  as  an  historical 
fact,  which  courts  every  scrutiny,  and  defies  all 
criticism,  has  a  power,  when  clearly  set  forth,  to 
remove  all  scepticism  of  the  intellect ;  and,  from 
the  day  of  Pentecost  till  now,  its  preaching  has 
been  accompanied  by  that  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  which  can  overcome  the  deeper  scepti- 
cism of  the  will.  While  the  gospel,  when  cor- 
rectly apprehended,  commends  itself  to  every 
man's  conscience  in  the  sight  of  God  ;  while 
every  Christian  truth,  when  clearly  stated,  will 
be  seen  to  carry  its  own  witness  within  itself  to 
the  truth,  so  deeply  do  God's  ways  correspond 
in  the  human  soul,  made  in  God's  likeness, 
to  its  own  original  insight  of  him,  —  yet  the 
power  of  sin  is  so  subtle,  and  the  will  has  such 
sophistries  of  its  own,  wherewith  to  entangle 
and  hoodwink  the  intellect,  that  we  need  contin- 
ually to  appeal,  in  attestation  of  the  doctrine,  to 
outward  facts  which  the  senses  can  apprehend  ; 
as  Leverrier  and  Adams  needed  the  actual  dis- 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST,  I99 

covery  of  the  new  planet  in  order  to  prove  the 
value  of  their  calculations  to  others,  if  not  also 
to  confirm  them  to  themselves. 

Moreover,  a  clear  view  of  the  resurrection  of 
Christ,  as  an  historical  truth,  is  necessary  to  a 
clear  knowledge  of  redemption.  The  fall  of 
man  is  an  historical  fact.  Sin  has  entered  the 
human  race,  and  penetrated  its  whole  history 
with  death.  Redemption  from  sin,  if  ever 
accomplished,  must  be  just  as  actual  a  fact  of 
history  as  is  sin  itself.  He  who  is  to  redeem 
us  from  sin  must  actually  stand  in  our  place, 
and  be  wounded  for  our  transgressions,  and  be 
bruised  for  our  iniquities  ;  and  the  chastisement 
of  our  peace  must  be  upon  him,  before  we 
can  be  healed.  All  we,  like  sheep,  have  gone 
astray,  and  there  must  be  laid  upon  him  the 
iniquity  of  us  all,  before  it  can  be  lifted  from 
ourselves.  He  who  is  to  deliver  us  from  the 
power  of  death  must  break  that  power  through 
his  own  victorious  deliverance ;  and  He  who  is 
to  be  our  eternal  life  must  show  himself  to  us 


200  CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 

the  Prince  of  life,  through  his  actual  triumph 
over  death  and  the  grave.  However  ideally 
perfect  a  system  of  salvation  might  be  conceived 
to  be,  unless  it  should  find  expression  in  such 
actual  facts  as  these,  it  must  be  powerless  to 
save.  It  is  thus  that  philosophy  must  ever 
prove  itself  inadequate  for  salvation,  and  that 
any  education  or  culture,  however  extended,  will 
always  lack  power  to  purify  or  give  life  to  the 
world. 

Man,  as  a  personal  sinner,  needs  a  personal 
Saviour.  No  thought,  no  system  of  doctrine, 
no  enlightenment  of  the  intellect,  will  ever  break 
the  bondage  of  the  will  to  sin.  We  only  get 
liberty  and  life  through  love ;  but  no  description 
of  love  ever  inspires  us  with  love,  any  more  than 
we  can  find  warmth  from  all  our  knowledge  of 
the  sunlight.  The  warm  ray  alone  can  warm 
us :  the  loving  deed  alone  can  give  us  love. 
The  glory  of  the  risen  Saviour  can  melt  all  the 
stubbornness  of  the  frozen  heart;  and  the  power 
of  his  life  in  his  conquest  of  death,  if  everywhere 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF   CHRIST.  201 

preached,  would  give  light  and  life  to  all  the 
world. 

"  If  Christ  be  not  risen,  then  is  our  preaching 
vain,  and  your  faith  is  also  vain.  .  .  .  But  now 
is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead,  and  become  the 
first-fruits  of  them  that  slept  .  .  .  and  he  must 
reign  till  he  hath  put  all  enemies  under  his 
feet." 

Oh,  my  brethren,  what  a  kindling  impulse  to 
all  missionary  efforts  have  we  here!  What 
courage,  what  fortitude,  what  high  hopes,  what 
wide-reaching  plans,  what  earnest  and  increas- 
ing endeavor,  what  an  undying  impulse  to  evan- 
gelize the  world,  does  the  resurrection  of  our 
Lord  incite  in  his  Church !  Who  that  has  any 
living  view  of  this  great  truth,  who  that  has 
felt  its  power  in  his  own  forgiveness  and 
renewal  and  eternal  life,  can  be  slow  of  effort, 
or  of  weak  desire,  in  preaching  the  gospel  of  a 
risen  Saviour  unto  every  creature  ?  We  are  not 
ashamed  of  this  gospel  of  Christ ;  "  for  it  is  the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  be- 


202  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

lieveth."  We  have  no  tame  apologies  begotten 
of  timid  belief,  as  we  point  perishing  men  to  a 
dying  and  risen  Saviour.  We  have  no  abate- 
ment to  make  from  the  supernatural  and  mirac- 
ulous claims  of  this  gospel  to  the  intellectual 
assent  of  a  scornful  and  sceptical  world.  To 
all  the  forms  of  unbelief  rife  in  Christian  lands, 
we  proclaim  a  gospel  with  sufficient  proof,  which 
is  cogent  both  to  convince  the  understanding, 
and  to  convert  the  heart.  Here  is  a  truth,  also, 
which,  clearly  preached,  can  dispel  the  error 
with  which  the  unrenewed  heart  deceives  itself 
v/hen  it  seeks  its  salvation  through  meritorious 
works  of  its  own.  He  who  beholds  the  all- 
sufficient  work  of  the  risen  Redeemer  can  feel 
the  need  of  nothing  more,  and  must  feel  the 
fruitlessness  of  any  thing  less.  Who  can  go 
about  to  establish  his  own  righteousness,  that 
has  once  discerned  and  submitted  to  this  right- 
eousness of  God  ?  Here,  also,  is  a  truth  which, 
from  its  first  proclamation,  has  ever  shown  itself 
mighty  to  the  pulling-down  of  the  strongholds 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  2O3 

of  superstition  in  unchristian  lands.  The  cold 
and  blind  and  arbitrary  will,  without  justice  and 
without  love,  which  the  followers  of  the  false 
prophet  declare  to  be  the  only  God  ;  the  vague 
and  impersonal  essence,  empty  of  thought,  and 
unmoved  by  feeling,  into  whose  limitless  and 
unconscious  void  the  Brahmin  hopes  to  be 
absorbed;  the  helpless  and  hopeless  presence 
through  whose  repeated  incarnations  the  Buddh- 
ist is  taught  that  existence  is  only  a  curse,  and 
that  annihilation  is  the  only  salvation ;  the  ruder 
and  cruder  forms  of  untutored  faith,  where  people 
of  appalling  wretchedness  and  degradation  find 
objects  of  worship  which  take  on  the  shape  of 
their  own  defilement ;  all  systems  of  false  reli- 
gion, which,  nevertheless,  in  their  way,  may  be 
seeking  the  Lord,  if  haply  they  might  feel  after 
and  find  him,  —  can  only  be  banished  from  the 
world,  can  only  lose  their  hold  upon  the  mind, 
by  the  truth  of  a  living  and  loving  divine  Lord, 
who  —  having  taken  upon  himself  their  nature, 
and   manifested    himself  by  divine   works   and 


204  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

words,  as  God  actually  present  with  men,  and 
having  taught  men  by  his  life  the  glory  of  the 
divine  purity  and  sympathy  and  condescending 
grace — ^^  showed  them,  also,  by  his  death,  the 
wonders  of  a  divine  sacrifice  for  sin,  and  then 
made  manifest  by  his  resurrection  from  the 
dead  that  there  needs  no  other  sacrifice.  The 
entrance  of  this  truth  giveth  light:  it  giveth 
understanding  unto  the  simple.  Before  its 
coming,  the  shadows  flee,  as  the  night  before  the 
morning. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  darkness  which  still 
rests  upon  the  world,  the  news  of  the  great  sal- 
vation is  steadily  extending.  Within  the  last 
fifty  years,  fliere  have  been  opened,  outside  of 
nominal  Christendom,  more  than  four  thousand 
centres  of  Christian  influence,  from  which  the 
light  of  the  gospel  shines.  Dark  places  of  the 
earth,  which  were  full  of  the  habitations  of 
cruelty,  have  become  homes  of  light  and  peace 
and  joy,  through  the  saving  power  of  that  godli- 
ness which  hath  the  promise  of  the  life  that 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  205 


now  is,  as  well  as  of  that  which  is  to  come. 
The  weight  of  the  world's  conversion  rests  upon 
the  Church,  and  inspires  a  missionary  zeal,  and 
leads  to  efforts  more  abundant  and  more  fruitful 
at  the  present  day  than  ever  before.     But  it  is 
not  upon   this  that  we  base   our   hope  of   the 
world's  conversion.    "  Some  trust  in  chariots,  and 
some  in  horses;  but  we  will  remember  the  name 
of  the  Lord  our  God."     The  promise  of   God 
made  unto  the  fathers,  and  which  he  fulfilled  in 
that  he  raised  up  Christ  from  the  dead,  is  our 
sure   reliance.      We   trust   that   promise.      We 
know  in  whom  we  have  believed,  and  are  sure 
that  he  is  able  to  keep  what  is  committed   to 
his  hands.      His  resurrection,  by  which  he   is 
declared  to   be   the   Son   of   God  with   power, 
proves  that  the  kingdoms  of   this  world    shall 
become  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  of   his 
Christ,  and  that  he  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever. 
"  Yea,  all  kings  shall  fall  down  before  him,  all 
nations  shall  serve  him." 

In  the  great  work  of  seeking  to  hasten  this 


206  CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS. 

blessed  consummation,  we  bow  before  our  risen 
and  ascended  Redeemer,  exclaiming,  Hitherto 
hath  the  Lord  helped  us,  and  henceforth  our 
trust  shall  be  only  in  him.  May  he  pour  upon 
us  his  blessed  Spirit,  that  we  may  know  more  of 
him  and  the  power  of  his  resurrection  !  We 
acknowledge  our  dependence  upon  his  right  arm, 
which  hath  gotten  for  itself  the  victory.  We 
abandon  all  reliance  upon  devices  or  achieve- 
ments of  our  own  ;  but  with  increasing  hope 
in  him,  through  the  increasing  faith  which  he 
permits  us  to  cherish  in  his  victorious  power, 
we  joyfully  go  forward  as  workers  together  with 
him,  and  call  upon  all  the  world  to  receive  his 
great  salvation.  We  need  not  speak  of  duty 
here,  but  of  life  and  joy,  and  blessed  com- 
munion with  our  Lord  in  his  glorious  work. 
His  language  to  his  disciples  is,  "Henceforth 
I  call  you  not  servants  ;  for  the  servant  knoweth 
not  what  his  lord  doeth  :  but  I  have  called  you 
friends  ;  for  all  things  that  I  have  heard  of  my 
Father   I  have  made  known  unto  vo\i."      We 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST.  20/ 

know  what  his  purpose  is,  and  that  nothing 
shall  swerve  him  from  its  full  accomplishment. 
All  power  is  given  unto  him  in  heaven  and  in 
earth  ;  and  his  purpose  cannot  fail.  He  is  the 
Saviour  of  sinners,  and  the  life  of  the  world  ;  for 
he  "was  delivered  for  our  offences,  and  was 
raised  again  for  our  justification."  All  hail  the 
power  of  Jesus'  name  !  We  catch  the  echo,  and 
send  it  round  the  world.  All  hail,  we  cry,  to 
this  dying  but  deathless  Prince !  "  Lift  up  your 
heads,  O  ye  gates ;  and  be  ye  lift  up,  ye  ever- 
lasting doors  ;  and  the  King  of  glory  shall  come 
in."  Let  every  knee  bow  to  him,  and  every 
tongue  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the 
glory  of  God  the  Father. 


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